The Player That Can't Lose

“I remember losing at tic-tac-toe.  When I lost one game I decided to study the game so I would always win or draw.” – Dan Arnold

The Player That Can’t Lose

Most people don’t view life as a game.  But my friend Dan Arnold, who has successfully run a financial services company for more than twenty years, has used the simple game of Tic-Tac-Toe as his life approach model for most of his life.  He explained it to me one day as we sat talking in between flights.

“I remember losing at Tic-Tac-Toe!”  He said. “When I lost one game I decided to study the game so I would always win or draw.”

Dan then explained to me. “In doing so, I learned much more than how to just win a modest game.  I learned that if I was going to have a successful life, I needed to approach it in the same way.  I needed to know I would win in advance!”

I knew Dan was right, but I wanted to confirm his philosophy through one of my technical sources, Stephen Ostermiller, a computer programmer and game designer.  And, he was able to break it down into much more detail.

Stephen says, “If you know what you are doing, you can’t lose at Tic-Tac-Toe. If your opponent knows what they are doing, you can’t win at Tic-Tac-Toe. The game is a zero sum game. If both players are playing with an optimal strategy, every game will end in a tie.”

Stephen continued, “Surprisingly few people know optimal Tic-Tac-Toe strategy. Yes there are some people (and computers) that you will never beat, but they are relatively rare. Knowing this, you can become a Tic-Tac-Toe master.”

And, yes Dan can be identified as one of the relatively rare people who have become a Tic-Tac-Toe Master.  But, more importantly he has given you and me the key to mastering our own lives!  I call it “Tic-Tac-Toe Living.”

Here’s how Stephen breaks down the four kinds of players: 

1.     The Novice player makes random moves.

2.     The Intermediate player will block their opponent from winning.

3.     The Experienced player knows that playing in certain first squares will lose the game.

4.     The Expert player will never lose.

Stephen adds, “Pitting these players against each other, you can see that in all cases, the better player wins more.”  He has even completed a statistical analysis to show how each type of player performs against the other types.  I won’t make you go through all that.  But, he confirmed that Dan’s Tic-Tac-Toe Living philosophy is a real winner!  So, you and I can decide what kind of life player we want to be.

We can be the kind of person who makes random moves, a person who just reacts to or guesses at what life throws at them.  Or, we can spend our time simply positioning ourselves against those we see in life as our opponents.  Perhaps at this point in life you and I will be the person who has discovered enough about ourselves to know certain first squares to avoid?  But, Tic-Tac-Toe Living opens the way for us to do more!

You and I can spend the time necessary to discover what my friend Cliff Hurst calls our “Purpose Economy.”  That is what we are best at and love to do.  Then, we can take deliberate and perfect incremental steps so we’ll be assured of our success in advance.

Our success in following the Tic-Tac-Toe Living formula can be quantified, as Stephen has demonstrated.  So, nothing can hold you back!  No one can possibly know the rules of your personal life game better than you do.  Become an expert in your purpose, purposefully so you’ll be the player that can’t lose!