What can chess teach you about entrepreneurship? According to a chess master who built one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., a lot.
Before he started his company, Josh Manion was an international chess master and ranked among the top 80 players in the U.S. He says chess taught him important lessons that he’s used to guide his business. Here are his top three.
- If you see a good move, keep looking — there might be a better one. Not every opportunity should be taken. Consider all the options based on all the available information, and don’t stop looking just because you find one solution.
- To win, you’ve got to plan many moves ahead. You can’t stay focused on the short term. You’ve got to think ahead, all the way through your first product launch, through the entrance of competition into the market, through your exit strategy.
- You have to manage your resources well, or you can lose. Even with a better position. In a chess tournament, you have a limited amout of time to make a certain number of moves. If you run out, you’re done. Same with cash flow in business. It doesn’t matter how great of a product you have if you don’t have the cash to stay solvent.
Business is a game, and you can win if you play with the right strategies.