My passion for the virtual world began when I was just a boy. I grew up in the ‘80s when classics such as Namco’s Pac-Man and Activision’s Pitfall! were just beginning to inch their way into the public sphere. These video games enraptured the young me. I was diagnosed with ADD at age 12, and gaming was one of the first outlets where I found my unquenchable zeal. Within this digital environment, my chaotic energy proved to be a feature, not a bug. Even when my often-haphazard attempts failed, I still gained new insights into the framework of the game.
This love of gaming has come to define my perspective on innovation. Whenever I’m struggling on a project, I see things through a gamer’s lens. Us gamers don’t fear failure; in fact, failure is how we learn. Every time we lose a level, we learn more about what does and doesn’t work. Because of this, we know that our failures help us get better at the game, that we can improve the situation that we are in. Of course, the obstacles we face become proportionally more difficult as we hone our skills and increase our knowledge. However, us gamers eagerly take on these roadblocks, fully aware that the reason we’re facing challenges now is because we worked hard in the past. Gamers don’t run away from problems. We run towards them. When you find yourself at a stumbling block, be a gamer.
Today, out of all days, having the ability to problem-solve like a gamer is essential. In the modern era, we’re faced with mammoth crises such as the pandemic, systemic discrimination, and limited resources. Most of our attempts to address these issues will fail. However, we must use those failures to grow and develop, to develop, so that we
can eventually at least reduce the scope of these problems. This is why we need leaders who think like gamers–we need leaders who are willing to try to find new pathways forward in these turbulent times, even if some of those new pathways prove to be dead ends. After all, only through failure can we gain the knowledge and practice needed to get us through the herculean troubles that we face now.
