Maintaining the kind of dynamism that pushes a business forward means professionals are constantly looking for different sources of inspiration and learning.
There are plenty of resources such as books and journals, many of which will be sectorally targeted. Potentially of equal utility can be face-to-face interactions, whether a simple lunch with a peer or at a conference or trade show. We recently featured dealership training as another boon to business. But there are ways to train those business muscles that are part of everyday life, often in unlikely places. And one of those is the world of poker.
Success in poker is strongly about mindset. Consider George Holmes, a banking executive who came second in the 2021 World Series to win $4.3mn despite being an amateur who rarely plays tournaments, coming from behind after nearly being eliminated a couple of days prior. Holmes displayed a tenacity of spirit appealing to American sensibilities and a sharpness of wit appealing to business folk. Everyone wants to know how to rebound when the chips are down, and learning the game where the phrase comes from is one way to do it. Here’s how.
Hunting for Opportunities
Poker players are consistently poring over the information they have available to them and running quick calculations as to potential success or failure. In the limited parameters of a deck of cards, a particular hand is something of a known quantity if you take the time to memorize the odds. There are more variables in business, but unlike in poker, the information you need is more often available if you know how to seek it out, usually through a SWOT analysis. Searching for a moment to strike is a useful habit in general, however.
Knowing the Legislation
The legal environment that poker operates in isn’t as clear-cut as it once was. Different countries and territories apply different poker legislation regarding whether the game can be played at all and whether it’s subject to taxation. It’s entirely legal in the United Kingdom, for instance, but within the US, there are only a handful of states where legislators have so far allowed online poker since a big clampdown in 2011. Staying abreast of legal developments in business is absolutely crucial, too. Take the sanctions on China and Russia that have directly and indirectly impacted so many supply chains and markets, for instance.
Keeping Feelings in Check
Emotions have a purpose in business — when relating to other members of your team, for instance, or acting on a ‘gut feeling’ (which is usually a product of experience and intuition). But there are situations where they can get in the way of reason, such as in a negotiation. Poker will teach you that lesson over and over again since reading emotions is such a key part of the game. Overconfidence in a hand isn’t so different from having a successful profit streak in the way we might overextend ourselves or underestimate competitors. You’ve got to know when to hold and when to fold.
Not Chasing Losses
In a similar vein to the above, we might be tempted to plow more resources into a failing project, company, or employee due to attachment. Learning when to cut those losses is a classic psychological effort that a bad day of poker will get you in the habit of. Luckily for casual online poker players, they can simply log off and take a break — things tend to be a bit tougher in business.
Although far from one-to-one, there are a number of striking parallels between wearing a ‘poker hat’ and a ‘business hat.’ Over time, then, using habits from the former should pay off in the latter.