Many people want to be Successful.
But there is a Misunderstanding that most people have.
They Believe that Success will just "Come" to Them.
Their Work is So Good, their Ideas are so Innovative, and their Hustle is so Unstoppable that Someone, Somewhere, will "Hand" them Success.
But it Rarely Works this Way.
There are Many People who do Spectacular Work who Never get Seen.
There are Many People whose Ideas Could Change the World who Never get a Chance.
There are Many People who Hustle Until their Bodies Literally Give Up due to Burnout, yet Achieve Nothing.
How could this be?
Shouldn't "The Best" Just Win?
Well, it isn't quite that simple.
Success is more like a Game, and within that Game there tend to be Rules.
Depending on the type of Success you Seek (most of us are playing Multiple Games Simultaneously), some Rules will Exist.
If you want Success, you must Figure Out the Rules of the Game You're Playing.
Now, Specific Rules will change from one place to another, but there are some Guiding Principles you can utilize to Play the Game(s) to Your Advantage.
First, Understand the Rules.
You Can't Play the Game if You Do Not Understand the Rules.
Where I see many people Go Wrong is that they get into a Game, and Immediately Break Rules that destroy their Opportunity.
For Instance, I publish to a platform called Vocal, where you can Earn Money when people Read your Articles.
Some New Writers' Immediate Reaction is to start Posting Links all over the site, trying to get everyone to see their Story.
But there is a Rule on the Platform, both Written and Unspoken amongst the Writers, that You Are Not Supposed to Do This.
Very Quickly, these types of Writers No Longer Post to the Platform because they Lost the Game.
All because they Failed to Understand the Rules
Another Rule to Play to Your Advantage is to Always be Ready to Change Course.
There are Many Reasons you Must be Ready.
Some Platforms will Change their Rules, so if you Do Not Change with the New Rules, you will be Left Behind.
With this, we are all also Human, and sometimes we Misunderstand a Rule.
In these cases, you must Change How You Play to get to the Best Way to Play within the Rules.
Regardless of "Why" You must Change, the Reality is that All Games will Change Over Time, so You Must be Ready.
Another Key to Success is to Play Games that utilize Your Strengths.
Far too often I see people, especially Creators, get into Games that they are "Very" Weak At.
Even if there is a "Top Platform" at a Given Time, it Will Not Matter if you are Awful at the Platform.
You "May" be able to "Learn" and make a Weakness into a Strength, but Most People "Struggle" to do this Well based on Positive Psychology.
Humans are Significantly Better at taking a Strength they already have and becoming Unstoppable at it.
So, within Any Game of Success, you must Honestly look at your Strengths and see if there is a Way to Utilize those Strengths.
If You Cannot Find a Way for Your Strengths to Fit, you will be better Served Playing a Different Game that works "With" Your Strengths.
(Some people "Do" find ways to take a "Perceived" Weakness and turn it into a Strength - think of the Best Short Basketball Players - but "They" Found how to Turn that into a Strength)
This ties into another way to Play to Your Advantage, which is to Become Amazing at the Game.
When I say "Amazing" I mean that at a Minimum, you want to have your Strengths match the Top 10% of that Game.
Ideally, you want to see a "Feasible" Path to become the Top 1% in that Game.
I see "Many" Entrepreneurs get this "Completely" Wrong as they see a Game and think they "Only" Need 1% of the Market for Success.
But this becomes a Dual Problem.
Second, by Aiming at 1%, they are Automatically putting themselves at the Bottom of the Game.
Breaking from the Bottom is a "Very" Difficult Task to Accomplish.
The Next way to Play to your Advantage is to be Consistent.
Most People Fail to Understand How Far Consistency can take them.
So if you want to Win the Game, Be "So" Consistent that Others Can't Keep Up.
Consistency is Not Hard to Accomplish, yet Few People "Actually" Do It.
When you are Playing to Your Strengths, Consistently, it is Easy to get Seen - "Especially" if you are already in the Top 10%.
Now, we are going to get into 2 Incredibly Important Rules that Most People Fail to Understand when it comes to Playing the Game of Success.
The First of these Rules is to "Never" become Attached to a Game Where "Others" Control the Rules.
I have seen this Happen "So" Frequently with Entrepreneurs and Creators.
They were "Dedicated" to a Platform because it Treated them "Really" Well - Facebook Groups & Business Pages, Instagram Stories, Snapchat, YouTube, etc.
What happened?
All of these Platforms "Completely" Changed the Rules of the Game, to the Dismay of the "Attached" Entrepreneurs and Creators.
Seemingly Overnight, these Individuals Lost "Everything" because the Rules Changed on a Platform they had No Say Over.
They Couldn't "Pivot" Quickly Enough to Anything Else because they were Completely Attached, and So Crashed.
If You Do Not Control the Rules, You Must "Expect" the Rules to Change, and they Could (and Likely Will) Change "Against" You.
The Game is Designed so "Someone" Profits, and usually whoever Controls the Rules, Profits the Most.
So, if their Profit becomes At Risk, they will Change the Rules so that they Continue to Profit.
In Category King/Queen Economics, the #1 Business in a Category "Typically" Owns about 75% of the Market.
They generally "Keep" that Stranglehold on the Market Until a "New" Market is Generated which makes them Irrelevant.
The Reason?
The Category King/Queen continues to Change the Rules of the Game, and because they own So Much, it Forces others to Play Along.
But at the End of the Day, the Changing Rules Benefit the Category King/Queen, not the other Players.
This brings us to the Last Possible Thing You Can Do.
"If" you Find that You Cannot Win in a Game, the Solution is to Create a New Game.
Become the Category King/Queen of The Game, and Own the Rules Yourself.
This, of course, is one of the Most Difficult Games to Play because you Must "Show" that the New Game is Exponentially Better than the Old Game.
This takes a Lot of Time and Effort to Accomplish.
But if you Accomplish This, then the Game Is Yours.
This is how To Play the Game of Success.
You can't "Own" All Games, for Instance, "Most" people Do Not "Own" the Game of Marketing, but you can Still Find "Success" within the Game of Marketing.
So Play to Win the Games You Don't Own, and Own the Games that are Essential for Your Success.
This is the Best Way to have the Advantage in the Game for your Success.