WARNING: What follows requires thought, open and authentic, "Hmmmm, that's interesting (perhaps even exciting). I wonder what would happen if I...?" Like that. Don't waste your time if you're not up for that and more.
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Lots of talk— virtual and actual— about a Revolution in MLM Network Marketing. Most in truth is back to basics stuff; those good and great things to do and be done that have worked since the beginning and will continue long after you and I are the upline in the sky. The rest is evolutionary; logical and intuitive next steps born from experience. Honestly, I don't find much being offered that truly "turns over" (the essence of the word revolvere) the status quo of what's so now. Except perhaps this...
From one way of looking at it, MLM Network Marketing is a game.
There's a field of play, rules, time frames, teams, ways to keep score,
bats and balls and racquets (and rackets), uniforms even (for some)... all of that.
But there's another view of the MLM/Network Marketing "game"— a wholly different paradigm that is not only vitally and vastly different from all the other "business" game models, but is a 180 degree shift from the MLM game most of us have been taught and are playing today.
See if what's below presents you with a lighthouse to your battleship.
These ideas are excerpted and paraphrased from the remarkable book: Finite and Infinite Games - A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility by James P. Carse
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There are at least two kinds of games: finite and infinite.
A finite game is a game that has fixed rules and boundaries, that is played for the purpose of winning and thereby ending the game.
An infinite game has no fixed rules or boundaries. In an infinite game you play with the boundaries and the purpose is to continue the game.
Finite players try to control the game, predict everything that will
happen, and set the outcome in advance. They are serious and determined
about getting that outcome. They try to fix the future based on the
past.
Infinite players enjoy being surprised. Continuously running into something one didn't know will ensure that the game will go on. The meaning of the past changes depending on what happens in the future.
All games are inherently voluntary. There might be consequences of not playing, but there is always a choice required. Driving in the right side of the road, shaking people's hands, and paying taxes are games one has a choice about playing. There are certain rules and boundaries that appear to be externally defined, and you choose to follow them or not. If you stop following them you aren't playing the game any longer.
All finite games have rules. If you follow the rules you are playing
the game. If you don't follow the rules you aren't playing. If you move
the pieces in different ways in chess, you are no longer playing chess.
Infinite players play with rules and boundaries. They include them as part of their playing. They aren't taking them serious, and they can never be trapped by them, because they use rules and boundaries to play with.
In a theatrical play the actor knows that she really isn't Ophelia. The audience knows that she really isn't Ophelia. But if she does a good job, Ophelia can express herself through the actor. The playing is most enjoyable when it is both clear that it is chosen play, that it is the actor doing it voluntarily, and at the same time it is so convincing, following the rules well enough that it seems real.
You can not play infinite games within a finite game.
You can do what you do seriously, because you must do it, because you
must survive to the end, and you are afraid of dying and other
consequences. Or, you can do everything you do playfully, always
knowing you have a choice, having no need to survive the way you are,
allowing every element of the play to transform you, taking pleasure in
every surprise you meet. Those are the differences between finite and
infinite players.
So, where are you at with all that? Seeing anything differently? Which game have you been playing? Which game do you want to be playing?
Please, let me know...
Thanks.
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