As You Get Better, The Game Gets Bigger

A mentor introduced me to this concept early in my career: “As you get better, the game gets bigger.”

There is evidence of this all through life; as a father watching my daughter grow and learn, each phase in development leads to a greater desire to achieve more. First, she rolled. Then, she wanted to crawl. When she could crawl, she wanted to walk. Now that she’s walking, she wants to run. Each achievement is met with an even greater desire to test her capabilities.

Our formal education also relates. We start in Preschool, then on to Grade One, Two, Three, etc, etc… Each grade serves a purpose in developing our current skillset. It’s hard, and challenging, but necessary to prepare us for the unknown to come. There is also a reason that the desks are so small in Grade One - you are not meant to stay in the one spot for too long. Some people take a little longer, yes, but we all need progress leading to a greater unknown to once again conquer.

How does this apply to work? Well, like a lot of business owners that I know, I didn’t initially set out to run a business. I’m sure a lot of people do, but not me. Over time, I came to realise that it was a necessary progression in my career.

I commenced in a sales role for someone else’s company, and by my third week, I was the top salesperson of the week. I would be lying if I didn’t say I felt quite proud, but it didn’t mean that I was the best person in the company - there were others playing a much bigger game, that I wasn’t even aware about until I was. As I got better, the game got bigger! I then took on more responsibility managing sales teams, and once again we made it to number one - and guess what? The achievement, although satisfying, left me wanting more. The game was, once again, getting bigger. Now, as a business owner, I’m chasing greater achievements to ‘level up’ and take on the next big game.

There is a key message here to make you aware of: the game is always evolving - and so are you, sometimes without even seeing it. What you once thought was difficult, now comes with ease. Congratulations! You’re getting better, which means the game needs to get bigger. So don’t fight it. Rather, embrace it. This progress is necessary to feel fulfilment in whatever you do. My advice is to attack it like a child - without hesitations. You may currently look like a baby giraffe taking it’s first steps, but soon you’ll have it with ease, and be looking ahead to a new destination that you weren’t even aware of.

- Mike Lambert