Business Book Review: The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek

The Infinite Game is a refreshing reminder that the goal isn’t to win. But, to keep playing the game, for generations to come to continue.

My Rating: ★★★★

Length: 272

Publisher: Portfolio

Released: 2020

Key Takeaway for Personal Branding

Start with Why best-selling author, Simon Sinek, continues this brave brand of leadership with The Infinite Game. As Sinek writes, he wrote this book to convert those who defend the status quo. To challenge leaders to think long-term, beyond their own lifetime. To create a world where people feel inspired, safe and fulfilled every day. To lead in the ‘Infinite Game’.

Finite Game Versus Infinite

According to Sinek, there are two kinds of games - Finite and Infinite Games.

Finite Games

Finite Games have known players and fixed rules. They have agreed upon objectives that, when reached, ends the game.

Infinite Games

Infinite Games are played by known and unknown players, with no exact rules. How players choose to play can change at any time. There is no finish line, therefore no such thing as ‘winning’. This creates an infinite game. Here, the primary objective becomes to keep playing, perpetuating the game.

Just Cause

Playing an Infinite Game is underpinned by a ‘Just Cause’. Sinek proposes this is different to your ‘why’. He believes your why comes from your past, like your origin story. A statement of who you are - your values and beliefs. But, for a Just Cause, he says,

A Just Cause is a specific vision of a future state that does not yet exist; a future state so appealing that people are willing to make sacrifices in order to help advance toward that vision.

A Just Cause is about the future. It defines where we are going. It describes the world we hope to live in and will commit to help build.

If the ‘why’ is the foundation, the Just Cause is the vision of the house.

A Just Cause becomes the ship's compass, without which it veers off course. Like with foundational principles of personal branding, it reminds you to pursue a vision.

Favourite Quotes

We can’t simply go to the gym for nine hours and expect to be in shape. However, if we go to the gym every single day for twenty minutes, we will absolutely get into shape. Consistency becomes more important than intensity.

We know a Cause is just when we commit to it with the confidence that others will carry on our legacy.

“…To offer the highest quality products at the best possible value, etc., etc.” Statements like this are of little use for those who wish to lead us in the Infinite Game. Such statements are not inclusive. They are egocentric—about the company; they look inward and are not about the future state to which the products or services are contributing.

A Just Cause that is preserved on paper can be handed down from generation to generation; a founder’s instinct cannot. Like the Declaration of Independence, a written statement of Cause dramatically increases the chances that the Cause will survive to guide and inspire future generations beyond the founders and those who knew the founders.

Leaders are not responsible for the results, leaders are responsible for the people who are responsible for the results.

Infinite-minded leaders understand that “best” is not a permanent state. Instead, they strive to be “better.” “Better” suggests a journey of constant improvement and makes us feel like we are being invited to contribute our talents and energies to make progress in that journey. “Better”, in the Infinite Game, is better than “best”.

In my life, the only common factor in all my failed relationships is me.

In Sinek style, The Infinite Game defies the status quo. Returning to the leadership of another era. As he himself opens,

“It’s surprising that this book even needs to exist.”

The Infinite Game is a brave display of Sinek’s own ‘Just Cause’. His critiques dare against the potential disapproval of the world’s most well-known companies. And the Finite Game leaders who govern them. In the process, arousing the uprising of Infinite Game leaders.

The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek: Available on Amazon.