The game theory won´t be analysed and presented here but just one experiment and one strategy that promises to be the most successful one over time.
There are different views of people of what the effects of one´s own success on others are. Some people believe that you can only gain greatly if somebody loses greatly in one way or another. Some people don´t even think about it and some other people believe that it is indeed possible to be successful in life and one´s career without being a heartless idiot or bad person. In this post we get to know the most successful strategy of playing.
Let´s look at the usual results that can result in a simple and usual game with other players:
Winning & Losing
Losing & Losing
Winning & Winning
Which one is according to your opinion the one to take?
Seems pretty obvious but it is still common for many of us to believe that they can only gain something when it becomes in one way or another a loss for somebody else if not the partner of business or trade.
This is the one that sees the marketplace and often also the world solely as a competitive field which it is of course. But it doesn´t have to be solely a competitive field. It can besides being competitive also start partnerships with other members of the marketplace that strengthen quality and profits of each partner.
“Honesty and integrity are by far the most important assets of an entrepreneur.”
Zig Ziglar
The Axelrod-Experiment in 1979
The American political scientist Robert Axelrod hold a computer tournament with 15 participants that had the question of which strategy is the most successful to play?
All players were allowed to cheat or use other unfair means to win. No rules, only the success at the end counts.
One of the players was different from the rest. Anatol Rapoport. His strategy was different and transparent. He told the other players before the game the rules he plays by.
Rule 1.: I play openly. I tell all players how I am going to play.
Rule 2.: In each round I look for win-win combinations to play. I want to win and the other shall have a win or advantage too.
Rule 3.: If somebody tries to use my transparent and collaborating way of playing against me, I hit back immediately and harshly. (Within the game of course)
Rule 4.: In case you have tried to take advantage of my way of playing and collaborating with you, I give you another chance of collaborating with me in case you have learned to respect me. I am quick to repay and quick to forgive.
There were three rounds of the tournament played and participants added and Anatol Rapoport has won all of them with his strategy that is now known as the “Tit for Tat” strategy.
When you try to play unfair and behind the back of people you collaborate with, after a while, they learn and the people you can do that with decreases within the same game.
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
Abraham Lincoln
You can either look for new games and new victims or you start using Anatol´s strategy. The win-win one and start getting regularly closer to where you want to be or what you want to do or have.
This strategy is also perfect for the long-term success in business and life by creating fruitful and successful partnerships. It can´t be enough underestimated and highlighted at the same time. New partnerships bring many new inspirations, feedback, and opportunities besides trusting and growing relationships in business and personally.
When you start looking for win-win collaborations in your career and life and communicate honestly your moves and reasons for them and genuinely want the other to benefit or profit in the degree and form that they want, a lot of doors are going to open up for you to places you might haven´t even dreamed or fantasized about yet.
The other advantage is that the overall focus of you stays as clean and away as possible from negative outcomes, results, means or thoughts and people with a negative vibe in general.
“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.”
Abraham Lincoln
I hope Axelrod-Experiment with Anatol Rapoport´s strategy have you helped you to understand more deeply that the world and marketplace don´t have to be as competitive as you might thought and that the philosophy that says that a win equals automatically to a loss for somebody else is far away from being the truth.
By playing your games of life in business and outside of it the way Anatol did, without being too naive about the participants and their motives and moves, your tendency of getting where want in life and even in a positive and harmonious way is much higher, if not even almost guaranteed for the long run.
“You can´t make a good deal with a bad person.”
Warren Buffet
