Are You Winning?

Are you winning? Can you really compare what we do, with a game? And if so, what game most closely resembles affiliate marketing? Life by Milton Bradley, maybe? I'm not so sure. In Milton Bradley's board game, your fate is determined by a spinner. Other games, your final outcome is determined by a roll of the dice.

I don't think being an entrepreneur is quite as random. If you ask me, it's more like chess.

If someone asks, "Who's winning?" during a game of chess, there is no clear answer. Your every move is determined by your opponent's last move. In real life, your "opponent" refers to several variables such as the skills you must have to overcome SEO rules always changing, bringing in traffic, coming up with fresh content, building your mailing list, social media skills, determining when and how to implement all of these "chess pieces". You can assign a different chess piece to each of the various ways to move your business forward. Maybe your affiliates are your pawns, Your website is the King, your email list is the Queen, Your social media are Rooks (Facebook and Twitter), Bishops (Instagram and Pinterest) and knights (Youtube and Vimeo), your pawns can be whatever variable you want.

In chess, you can win in a minute with four moves, or it might take much, much longer and require a lot more strategy; however, if you turn the board upside down in the middle of the game, you'll just never know. If you succumb to the temptation to quit, you'll just never know what might have happened in the next moment.

There is one big difference between winning in chess and winning as an entrepreneur, though. In chess, when you win, you declare, "Checkmate!" In business, when you win, you ask, Hey, where's the... CHECK, mate?"

To winning!