The Power of Monopoly

Just this last Christmas, I played Monopoly with my family. I can remember when I was younger I would lose every time to my older sister. It seemed no matter what I bought, I still ended up with no money and couldn't afford the high rents that I had to pay as a result of her collecting more money. Yet as I grew up, I saw the game differently. I knew that Boardwalk and Park Place were too expensive to be sustainable at the beginning. I also noticed that the real cheap property was, well, cheap. While you could build houses and hotels on them with little money, their return on investment was little as well- hardly enough to last long in the game when you would have to pay out to other owning more expensive property.

Over the last ten years or so, I have become much better at the game. Yet, the reasons for my improvement are not based on me playing Monopoly my whole life. While I am sure that experience has helped, I believe it is the knowledge I have acquired in business, real estate, and strategy that have helped me to understand the game of Monopoly, and therefore, the game of money in real life, much better.

A Simulation of Your Life's Actions

Games and role playing are a great simulation of how people react to situations in their real lives. While Monopoly is just a game, your actions in the game may reflect how you behave in your business and personal life. The idea of Monopoly is to gain raw land, properties, and make them more valuable, buy building homes and eventually hotels. The more land you acquire and build, the probability of you making more money as the other players have a higher chance of landing on your spaces.

Through gameplay, you can see patterns that people make, whether it buying too high priced properties which may become unsustainable, or staying with cheap properties they know they can afford, yet the profit from them isn't enough to cover their expenses. These patterns that happen in life, come through in a game like Monopoly, because it forces you to think differently and manage your money well. For a lot of people, managing their money is a subconscious effort. In other words, they don't do it, or they may try, but do not manage it well.

The Power Within

There are many parallels between business and Monopoly. Utilizing this game can be a powerful model for how you structure, manage, and grow your business. While it is a game, the metaphor for which it stands for is what I am talking about.

Applying the Power of Monopoly

Think about these concepts, how they apply to Monopoly and how they apply to your personal life or company. The concept is the same in all three. The more you practice by playing games, the easier it will be to implement those concepts in your life and in your business. You are training your brain to think differently by playing these games. Then you simply take that training and apply it to your business or personal finances.

Benjamin is passionate about helping companies and entrepreneurs create innovative approaches to business through branding, identity, and business development. Benjamin offers his opinions, thoughts, reviews, and how-to's to help you succeed at his official website, BenjaminWarsinske.com.