What we're supposed to learn about Life from Monopoly... but don't

What we're supposed to learn about Life from Monopoly... but don't

Monopoly is an obvious metaphor for modern life in which the wealthy 1% own the majority share of the world's property and the poor get poorer with each throw of the dice.

It's the worst game in the world - because you start out playing it surrounded by loved ones and with everyone taking an equal share. As you play it brings out your greed and if you really want to "win", you have to actively seek the failure of everyone around you. You might form alliances early on in the game, but ultimately you will betray everyone you sided-with in order to take it all.

At the end of the game - one person has all the paper and the plastic - and everyone else is crying with anger and frustration - and they all hate the "winner".

Lesson #1 - If you play Life like you play monopoly - at the end you will die lonely and despised

To win monopoly, you need to bankrupt all of your opponents before they can do the same to you. With each decision you make, it's essential to consider the best ways to improve your chances and beat the competition. Monopoly is a zero-sum game i.e. There can only be one winner. If someone else has something, then you cannot have it - and owing all the things is the only way to win. No - that's not quite right. You don't have to own everything - but you have to ensure your competition is left with nothing. Not less than you. Nothing. Worse than nothing, they need to be bankrupt while you are rich.

But Life is not a zero-sum game. It is not possible for one person to hold all of the things worth having. [No megalomaniacs - that is not a challenge]. In the world, today we have got around 2,000 billionaires and from the look of things in 2018 the number will be higher. But there is not a direct correlation between one person getting richer and another getting poorer. Someone could discover oil tomorrow, or a new gold or diamond mine. They would instantly be richer -without yet having taken anything from anyone. And of course, if you dig deeper into that thought - money, gold, diamonds - these are, just like in monopoly - only tokens in the game that can be exchanged for other things of value... but ultimately the things we really want - love, happiness, contentment - these things cannot be bought.

Lesson #2 Money, houses, jewelry, cars are tokens in the game and they cannot be exchanged for other things of value like love, happiness, contentment.

In monopoly the aim of the game is clear. In Life - we often assume it is the same thing - climb the ladder, tick the boxes, collect the tokens - but what if we have allowed ourselves to be distracted by coloured baubles while our cousins are in the kitchen eating all the snacks?

Stop.

Pause for a moment and consider if you are spending your time in pursuit of something of real value. You have enough money to eat and clothe yourselves. You have enough in order to have a few luxuries. You aren't eating beans and rice for dinner every night. Why are your working so hard to earn a little bit more? What is it you value? What is it that you hold dear? What is it you want to do with your life? If you looked back on the movie of your life today - would you be pleased with the plot? Was there enough action, adventure, romance and humour in it for you?

Lesson #3 He who dies with the most toys still dies. The purpose of your life is not to die with the most toys.

In monopoly players should never buy hotels, because once you've reached three houses, the amount that the rent increases with each house maxes out. If you want to be extra sneaky - stay on four houses and prevent people from buying houses later in the game once you've used them all up. Once players have all the cards in a particular set, they should mortgage all their other properties and spend their money on houses.

This is definitely a zero-sum strategy. You are seeking both to bankrupt people with extortionate rents before they have the possibilty to raise their own income to match you, and prevent them from ever being able to match you - by using houses that you do not even need. You could free up those houses by converting them to hotels, but you don't - because you don't want to enable a free market economy. You deliberately seek a monopoly in order to ensure others must fail.

Lesson #4 You do not win Monopoly - you ensure everyone else fails. You will not win in life by making everyone around you fail.

In the game's latter stages the safest place to be is jail, because you are then less likely to land on properties with lots of houses. The much-prized Get Out of Jail Free card is better deployed early in the game. After you have bought everything up you may as well sit in jail and just watch the money come in.

Lesson #5 Culture trumps strategy every time.

It takes a certain type of person to be willing to deal with a criminal. Even if you are a millionaire or billionaire. People will not trust you (and they will be right not to), they will not respect you and they certainly will not like you. There are very few things we do in life that cannot be completely thrown off track by people's opinions, people's feelings, people's views - no matter how much of an island we might claim to be.

I often tell my collegues in the office that if everyone was perfectly logical, we would not be employed in our current jobs. You can go to the internet, look at technical specs and instructions and implement the best solution for the task based on what are logically the best tools. But people do not - they argue with each other. They press for their own personal preference. They choose based on colour, or font, or image rather than performance and functionality. Politics comes into play. People choose who they like above who is better. Culture trumps strategy every time. People over process.

I remember when I was still a student in my 3rd year at University. I went to a group Interview with Unilever. Now, I had been to some of these graduate program interviews before - and I had seen the scenario we were presented with previously and I knew what the solution was. Excitedly I spoke up - I told my group what the solution was - and waited for their grattitude and adulation. I was sorely disapointed. They did not accept it. They started working together on another solution and I sat in dejected silence. Even though I had the "right" answer - I did not progress to the next round. I'm sure you can see why...

The purpose of the test was not to come up with the right answer. The purpose of the test was to see how one worked as part of a team. How one led. How one collaborated. How one convinced others that an idea has merit. For the first time in my life it occured to me that life is not a meritocracy. The one with the best answer will not always win. The one with the most influence will win. And that influence might be charm or it might be money. It might be threats. It might be physical strength. It might be cleverness but it might not be. It might be being prepared to do the thing that others are not yet prepared to do. But that technique might ultimately turn against you.

If you get a chance, check out the Netflix series called the 3%. Only series 1 has been released over here so far, but that is enough for you to get the idea.

Monopoly is a game with one goal. To win by causing all others to lose. Life is not so simple. You cannot win at life by causing everyone around you to fail. Having the most money does not make you the winner - something Bill and Melinda Gates clearly decided after too many years at the top of the world rich list. They started trying to give away as much money as they can through their foundation. Last year they paid off Nigeria's $76B polio debt, amongst many other things. They are attempting to play a completely different game and I think they are doing very well.

So my advice? Only you can decide how you want to play the game of life. Only you can judge what you value and what you are playing for. I think the majority of people play according to the standard rules of play, and they seek to accumulate counters and tokens by ticking boxes, by passing Go, by collecting their salary, buying property etc. And I think it's a strategy that gives people a feeling of security and purpose. But I think it's a mistake to rigidly adhere to that framework. If you lack imagination, ability and compassion - then colouring inside the lines will keep you out of trouble. But if you have the imagination to see beyond those artificial boundaries - then ask yourself:

"What is my purpose? What do I want to do before I die? Who do I want to be? What do I value?"

These are hard questions. But until you know the answers - you are just a chicken pecking in the dirt trying to get the most pellets...




Michelle Sandford works for Microsoft. She is the Vice Chair of the Australian Computer Society in WA, a Tedx Speaker, a Tech Girl Superhero and one of MCV's 30 Most Influential Women in Games. You can follow Michelle on LinkedIn for her articles; on Twitter for events, interesting shares and occasional commentary in 140 characters, Facebook to see where she is presenting next, YouTube for Video's and Instagram for the life of a Microsoftie in photographs.


Amy Wallin

CEO at Linked VA

6 年

Love this analogy, Mich! I agree that true success is more than just money; it is smiles, laughter, love, great health and enjoying every moment of life.

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Dr Stacey Ashley CSP

Keynote Speaker | Future Proofing CEOs | Leadership Visionary | Executive Leadership Coach | LinkedIn Top Voice | Thinkers360 Global Top Voice 2024 | Stevie Awards WIB Thought Leader of the Year | 6 x Best Selling Author

6 年

Well articulated, well researched - thanks for sharing, Michelle.

Al Kitchen

Customer Success @ Microsoft | Non Exec Director @ Low Carbon Hub |

6 年

Great article. For me the greatest game / metaphor for life was Mousetrap (the Game). I had Mousetrap, I played WITH Mousetrap but I never actually played the game. Someone had created a game and said that it should be played in a certain way - with rules and instructions. I threw those out and we just built more elaborate ways of triggering the trap. Life is not about achieving someone else's end state - find your own end state. On Monopoly - what if you bring it up to date by adding a sharing economy element to it. In Monopoly most of the properties are underutilized (rarely landed on). Add Air BnB and social housing model and those underutilized properties could provide affordable housing to Nurses and Firefighters that support the community. Back in the 70's it seemed like games of Monopoly went on forever. In reality - isn't that what we should be striving for?

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Jonathan Wade

Executive Leader | Modern Work and Security Lead at Microsoft | Dyslexic Thinker

6 年

Thanks for taking the time to write. Monopoly was banned in my house! Part of me thinks Lesson #1 could read "If you play Life like you play monopoly - at the end you will die lonely and despised (but might have been President!)"

Matthew Dodd

Unconventional Thinking | Digital Workplace | Enterprise Social

6 年

The origins of Monopoly were actually to try to teach people the social consequences of a free market economy. It seems this message got lost at some point - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Landlord%27s_Game

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