Lessons from Card Games

During your MBA Education, learning happens not only in the class, but also from other quarters. It happens from interactions with professors, interactions with peers, seniors & juniors, co-curricular and extracurricular activities that you choose to take as well as things you do during your free time. You can draw parallels from what you are doing and what you are learning.

I was fortunate enough to influence my learning’s from most of these sources. Of all the activities I used to do, towards the end of my course, I fell in love with card games. I had a great set of friends who used to play cards every day. The more we started playing it, the more I found its applicability in Businesses as well. We started playing games like Poker and Teen Patti which actually helped me draw parallels with the business world. Even today, when I sit and ponder over certain decisions that I have to make, lessons from these games come in handy. Here are some of them

• Do not underestimate your resources. You never know when they might come in handy

However insignificant are the cards you have, you do not know what others are having. They might be having equally insignificant or even worse cards. Alternately, even the others do not know what cards you have. Even cards of small value, can sometimes win you games.

• Fortune favors the brave

You need to take risks in order to get returns. Higher the risks, higher usually are the returns. Only when you go out of your comfort zones, can you reap rewards. Taking risks sometimes also plays the added role of destabilizing the opponents and induce him into doing something wrong, which can again help you in your pursuit.

• Play with the mind

There is an old saying which goes somewhat like you should never think with your heart but with your mind. You may be losing and your strategies may not be showing the desired effect. But the moment you take things to heart and influence your decisions, you are sure to make more mistakes.

• At times, it’s better to keep quiet

In terms of action as well as words, at times, it is better to remain silent. Usually when you are under stress, you tend to panic. Under such situations, you tend to do something or say something that will clearly indicate the same to other opponents. Sometimes, this might just be the opening they might be looking forward to

• Be unpredictable

The more unpredictable you are, the more difficult it is for the opponents to play against you. You should be unpredictable in terms of the type of moves you’ll play for different situations. A good player usually forms an opinion about fellow players a few rounds into the game based on observations of play. You should not let the player form an opinion about you that is correct

• Exit at the right time

All of us have bad days, all of us have bad games. When things are stacked against us and no options are working out, we need to know it’s time to move out. Staying in the game, will only further your losses and will give nothing. There is nothing wrong in retiring from the game at times. The idea is to win the battle. Losing a war here and there is okay.

• Be ready to quit when the situation is against you even if you have the best resources

Sometimes, you might have the best of the cards. On other occasions, those might just give you a resounding victory. But this might just not be the occasion. The situation might just not be with you. Someone else might be having cards better than you. You need to be smart enough to take cue out of the same

• Read hidden signals

Everything in life doesn’t come to you on a platter. You need to stretch a bit here and there in order to excel. Some signals come from the game and the opponents in indirect ways. Read those signals and make your moves accordingly.

• Be a good observer

Games need not be necessarily won by your smart moves alone. Some games are won by capitalizing on the mistakes of the opponents. And to do that, you need to be alert and always in the game.