Winning supremely… by playing brilliantly

On Wednesday we learned a powerful, life-changing lesson.
But we chose to learn it in an unnecessarily painful way!

Look at us… in our Soul Millionaire Spring MasterClass!

Our extraordinary MasterClass Facilitator, Jane Adshead-Grant had divided us into 4 teams.
Ready to play a game.
A game to test our wits and wisdom.

Jane showed us the rules.
Then she explained the PURPOSE of the game.

“The Purpose of The Game is… to Gain the Maximum Number of Points”.

After staring at each other in bemusement for a while…
You could see ‘the light dawning’ on our faces.

Each team started to plan and plot how to win.
Each team quickly devised their competitive strategy.

Our team realised that we could win…
By ensuring that the other teams finished with less points than us.

So, we played (what I thought was) a brilliant tactical game.

Although it was slightly irritating when Jane stopped us – 5 times – and said, firmly…
“The Purpose of The Game is… to Gain the Maximum Number of Points”.

Yeah. OK Jane.

And guess what?
OUR team won!
(Mine, mine, mine)

We won by competing cleverly.
We won by making sure that the other teams gained less points than us.

You should have seen us!
Grinning, quietly-chest-thumping, like beaming gorillas posing for David Attenborough.

Until we realised…
How utterly, utterly, UTTERLY ridiculous we had all been!

By competing…
By plugging into our primeval Lizard Brains of survival…
NONE of us had “gained the maximum number of points”!
NONE!

Because to Win More Points Than…
We had to ensure that the other teams LOST points.

If only we had COLLABORATED (rather than COMPETED)
If only we had worked in harmony WITH each other…
We could have ALL won!

We would have ALL gained the maximum number of points!

And so it is in this business of financial services, of Financial Planning.
(Or any business sector).

We can choose to focus on winning more than our peers.
On beating and vanquishing.
On climbing to the top of the heap, by clambering over others.

OR…

We can choose to focus on enriching and elevating the lives of our clients.

With one of those choices…
We can ALL win!