Graham Weaver: How to come up with a game you want to win (Category Management)
I saw it. last lecture Graham Weaver for Stanford GSB class 2025 yearsHow to Design a Winnable Game? Graham is a professor of management at Stanford and the founder and partner of Alpine Investors. But he’s not talking about investing, he’s talking about the moment you realize that you’ve been playing the wrong game for years.
The lecture begins with a personal moment when during a crisis. 2008 According to Weaver, the fund has lost 40The largest investor decided to leave, and at night he considered how many months the family would have enough savings while the newborn daughter slept next to him. Instead of “How do I work better, faster, and more?” the question was, “Is this the game I’m playing?” And the winning game, as he understands it, is one in which external success does not contradict the inner sense of meaning. It is not found in finished form, but is designed according to four rules.
1Choose a goal that really sparks. Not the point of view “just not to lose”, but the direction for which you want to get up in the morning. Big purpose changes our actions and our willingness to go long.
2Create your own game Many restrictions are not rules, but industry habits. It is worth looking for what customers hate, what competitors do not do, what personally haunts you, and develop already working strengths.
3Playing with people you admire The environment shapes our goals, values and character. It is important to choose people with whom you can remain yourself and not sacrifice life to the result.
4Start now "Not now" is a convenient form of fear. Life does not begin after a loan, promotion or job change. Everything we try to “get through” is our life.
This is a very deep and personal talk. It doesn’t promise quick answers, but it motivates you to stop, look honestly at your life, and start making a difference—not someday, but now.
So I took away from this story the idea that before you get more efficient, you should check the coordinate system itself. Do I want to win this game? Does it make me the person I want to be? And with those people do I do it?
P.S. I was reminded of another last lecture of about the same level, Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. told earlier. Both of these lectures are structured similarly and motivate you to look at your life and see if you’re doing what you really want to do... and if you’re not, it’s time to make a difference.
#Management #Leadership #Career #Goals #Stanford