Parallels of Business Strategy and Playing Solitaire

As I was sitting here with a fever of 101, not able to sleep and playing a game of Free Cell, my mind wandered to the other night when my husband said to me, “I don’t get that game. As many years as we have been married, I have never understood it and I can’t see what you like in it so much.” The same week, I saw a news report that said that playing games of strategy helps to tone the mind. So, my feverish mind must have connected the two things.

First off, I started by playing Solitaire the card game and not the electronic one in Denmark during the coldest and longest winter on record in Europe. Temperatures reached -40 F for over a week and the rest of the winter was no picnic. I was an exchange student and my host mother, a very bright woman and teacher, played Solitaire and knit sweaters to pass the time. To her credit, I did knit one sweater that winter, but it did not become my passion like Solitaire did.I came back to the US with a Danish set of cards and continued to play off and on when my brain needed a rest from my college studies. Somewhere along the way, I found Free Cell (I am sure it was at work isn’t that where everyone plays games?). According to FreeCell.org, FreeCell is the enormously popular solitaire game included with Windows. Because all cards are visible at the start of the game, it is almost entirely a game of skill. Almost all FreeCell positions can be won. The most notable exception is the game #11982 in Microsoft FreeCell. I’ve been playing it now for years, but more often now that I run my own business. You think it would be the opposite that when I am wasting my own time, I would not allow my #1 employee to play. But, I have found that a few quick games help me think. I make sure to set the timer because if left to my own devices, I will play too long and become unproductive.

Here is what I have learned:

1. Work with What You Have to Start With: Like in Free Cell, in business and in life you are dealt a set of cards that you probably dont have total (if any) control over. These could be things like your location, your family situation, your initial market, your suppliers, and so forth. Through your strategic moves, these can change over time, but to be successful, you really need to realistically evaluate what you have right at the start and not keep wishing for something else. For example, if you are a mother with limited time to work, you might not be able to create an empire right now. Maybe you concentrate on a niche product that fulfills a need close to home where you can balance both parts of your life.

LESSON: Evaluate your situation realistically and look at both its strengths and weaknesses. Don’t wish for something you can’t have right now and go with what you do have.

2. Business is a Set of Strategic Moves: As in the game, success in business is not really about luck. The hand you are dealt helps, but if just about every game is winnable, it really is your strategy and skill that comes into play. Focus on what strategic moves will get you to where you want to go. This is why a business plan helps. It forces you to think beyond today and see the bigger picture. When I first started Sign Babies, it was not something I crafted really well. I ran spreadsheet numbers and saw the potential profit, but I did not create a business plan and really understand my market. The big mistake that I initially made was that I based sales projections on retail sales instead of wholesale sales. Not realizing that the bulk of my sales would come from wholesale, my projections were way off. When I did write a business plan and show it to some veterans, they pointed this out to me. I had to readjust all sales figures by 40% a huge difference.

LESSON: Make sure you take the time to figure out what strategies are best for your business. Use a business plan to do this and give it to people for serious evaluation. This can save you thousands in the long run.

3. Think Far Ahead: When I talk to entrepreneurs about their businesses, they are often focused on the next task they need to complete. That is fine, but in Free Cell, you quickly learn that to win, you have to make several intermediate steps to get to the bigger move that ensures success. If you make the step that solves the immediate needs, you might jeopardize the future moves and lock yourself out of a win. Sometimes in Free Cell, it is better not to post the aces immediately, but concentrate on all the moves that get the columns in order. This usually will expose aces unexpectedly.

LESSON: Plan out 6 month, 1 year, 3 year, and 5 year goals and see what you need to do to make it to your destination. Without a long-term view, you may sacrifice a better move for an easy and quick one.

4. Just About Any Game is Winnable If You Know the Right Moves: There are only a handful of Free Cell games that are not winnable. At first, I did not know that and I lost a lot of early games. As my skill got better, I won a higher percentage of games. I now win about 80% of the games because I have experience.

LESSON: When you see experienced entrepreneurs who seem to win every game they play, remember that they started somewhere, sometime and probably didn’t win everything. You have to be willing to learn and sometimes to lose to become a great entrepreneur. You can’t look at loss as a defeat, but rather as a step to more wisdom.

5. Sometimes, It is Better to Cut Your Losses: In Free Cell, there often is a critical move that makes or breaks the game. If you start out down one path and don’t see your mistake, you doom your game to be ruled by that move. When it happens, it is better to find out sooner than later and finish the game and move on to another one. There have been many business deals that I have worked on with Sign Babies that did not come to fruition. The earlier I realized this, the better.

LESSON: Evaluate your efforts continuously and if you see that a deal or an idea will not take you to a winning place, decide if you should terminate it. By taking the time to critically evaluate things instead of staying the course on something that ultimately won’t get you to your destination, you are a winner because you realize what you need to do next time.

6. Don’t Give Up Because There is Always Another Game: My husband can’t learn Free Cell because he never plays long enough to understand the game. It takes a LOT of losses to understand how the game works. The same thing is true in business. If you don’t know a business inside and out to start, you are going to have some lost games and some learning experiences.

LESSON: To become successful, you keep playing and learning from what you didn’t do well the last time. Keep making deals, trying strategies, and perfecting your product, service, or solution.

7. Don’t Risk Too Much for the Game: I have found that there are times I get so wrapped in Free Cell that hours go by and I have lost my productivity. This especially happens when I am tired and feel unjustly burdened. I let myself wallow in the games to escape. In business, I have also fell so in love with a project or idea, that I have let myself dwell on it too much at the expense of the rest of my success. Sometimes this is also at the expense of my family and other relationships.

LESSON: If you find yourself focusing on one thing too much, take a step back and see if it is really doing the right things for you. Balance in life and business will make you an overall better person in business and life.

8. Keep Playing and Your Skills Get Better: Over the last 10 years I have been playing Free Cell in spurts, I have really improved. I now lose or give up on about 20% of the games where it used to be that I only won about 20%. It is because as I play, I learn strategies, patterns, and ideas that help me be successful. One thing I have learned is to empty out at least one column and to never leave less than two open spaces unless I can see a better move.

LESSON: You will become more successful in business if you study your moves and figure out strategies, patterns and moves for your industry or area of focus.

9. Learn From Those Who Know: I have never read up on Free Cell because I never thought there was any info on it. Who would write a book on Free Cell? But to my amazement, I found an entire website dedicated to it. Reading about it helped me understand a few moves that I mistakenly make often. Because I now know that just about every game is winnable and that there are some specific moves to make, I am betting that my average of wins goes up now.

LESSON: Get a mentor or read up to help you sidestep mistakes and succeed more quickly. Startup Princess is a great group for this. The local SBA is also a great resource.So, I can tell my husband that playing Free Cell isn’t a total waste of time. I am learning how to be strategic and think beyond just the next move both in business and life.

Nancy Cadjan, is the Founder of Sign Babies and Co-Host of Babies & Moms Radio. She was the very first Fairy Godmother for Startup Princess in July 2006.