Five ways to play a bigger game

I’m currently at the Entrepreneurs’ Organization conference in Istanbul. The theme for the event is transform, transcend, together.

I attend these events because it gives me a chance to reflect on ‘what now’ – and also to be inspired by the 800 other entrepreneurs in attendance, each of them here because they want to ‘play a bigger game’ too.

On my travels here I saw the following quote which got me thinking:

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
– Steve Jobs

Fundamentally, as entrepreneurs, we have to trust others and ourselves. Trust is something we give – not earn.

Here are five insights into playing a bigger game that I have gleaned already:

1. The way we see the world determines the way we live our lives – and if we ‘see’ those people around us who contribute to us and we acknowledge them authentically, we will ‘see’ a happier world.

2. The question I ask myself each day – am I thriving, surviving or did I make the world a better place? Challenging and reflecting give me focus.

3. Don’t let what you cannot do get in the way of what you can do. It is better to work for five minutes on the bigger game today rather than wait until you have ‘all the time in the world’ – in my experience that day still has not come.

4. People who love what they do every day believe the future can be bigger, or better, or more fun than the past and that they can influence it.

5. People who are engaged with what they do, do so from a place of happiness. Disengaged people are seeking pleasure and there is a fundamental difference between happiness and pleasure – pleasure cannot be sustained after the activity of producing the pleasure has stopped. True happiness comes from a state of well-being.

So ask yourself – what will assist me on the journey of becoming the best version of me?

And let me know what you discover.

Naomi Simson is considered to be one of Australia’s Best Bosses. An employee engagement advocate, she practises what she preaches in her own fast growth business. RedBalloon was named as one of only 13 BRW Best Employers in Australia in 2012 for four years in a row with an engagement scorecard of over 90% in each of those years – the average in Australian businesses is 54%.

One of Australia’s outstanding entrepreneurs, Naomi regularly entertains as a passionate speaker, a blogger and a published author, most recently publishing Five Thanks a Day. She has received many accolades and awards for the business she founded, RedBalloon.com.au including the 2011 Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur of the Year – Industry.