Lessons from Succession: Finite and Infinite Games
Logan is always playing the game to win. He says, "I always win." And this mindset of playing the game to win is something Simon Sinek, calls the finite game. He wrote a book called the infinite game in which he says people often play two types of games.
One is the finite game mindset, which people like Logan play to win. The other is called the infinite game which is about playing a game, not just to win or lose, but for a bigger purpose. What does he mean by that? He looks at the example of Microsoft under Steve Balmer and apple under Steve jobs. So when apple came to Steve jobs, they created the iPod.
So Microsoft under Steve Ballmer said, "how do we win in this market where apple has created an iPod? We need to create zune as this portable MP3 player to compete with iPod.” Simon Sinek says apple never played that game of trying to compete with their competitors.
Apple is playing the bigger game of "how do we live into the purpose of helping our customers navigate through this technology world in a way that is aesthetic and meaningful for them." Microsoft is playing game of wanting to win over Apple's products. Whereas Apple is playing the infinite game of living for a bigger purpose of helping customers navigate through the technology world.
Three years after Apple created the iPhone and Microsoft was trying to catch up the create Zune . And then apple came up with the iPhone, which brought together the iPod into the phone. And the idea was that they wanted to help their customers
Have better experiences and that made Microsoft Zune obsolete. Nobody even remembers the zone today. And that's the difference between the finite game and the infinite game. The finite game is played just to win a particular battle. Whereas the infinite game is played for a bigger purpose!
And when we look at the TV show succession. Logan is always playing the finite game to win with his own children. From episode one, he is jealous of his own son, because he thinks if he becomes the CEO his son will become more powerful than him.
For Logan. It is about him winning, and that is a finite game. Logan could have had an infinite game mindset of how can he develop a relationship with the son that was truly loving. To play the game of love is to play the infinite game! Whether it is not about winning or losing, but it is about playing for a bigger purpose of having a deeper connection of having more intimacy with other people. And the problem is Logan could never do that. And the reason for that is as a child, Logan was not modeled what does it mean to be in a loving relationship?
The middle of season four Logan is trying to sell this company to a competitor against the will of his children. And in the battle between him and his children. It is that conflict that causes the heart attack even there Logan could have played the infinite game of trying to think about it as "I love my children," "how could I help them succeed?" Instead , he just wanted to win. And this desire to play this finite game of winning against children, backfires on him.
When you play the finite game, you may win short term, but in the longterm you ended up losing.
Simon Sinek in his book talks about how this happened in the battle between the US and Vietnam. the US soldiers were playing a finite game and they were winning the individual battles. But the lost the war because they didn't have a bigger purpose for which to fight this war.
Whereas on the other hand, The Vietcong actually lost all the individual battles. But they still won the war because they had a bigger purpose for which they were fighting. They were defending their Homeland. So they were going to fight to the last man!
When you play the finite game, you may win short-term but you lose long-term. Because there isn't a bigger purpose. And we see the same thing happening for Logan and for all of his children too. Everyone is playing the finite game. In fact, even Tom who ultimately wins in this game to become the new CEO, loses the infinite game of love. At the end, he never has Shivon Roy's love for him. And that's where the show ultimately ends. Which is why succession is a brilliant tragedy. Where even the ones that win are actually losing. Because they are losing in the infinite game of love. While winning in the finite game of power dynamics in the short-term.
Why is that? Why is it that even the ones that win, ultimately lose?
To truly play the infinite game really well. There needs to be two things. One the recognition to see. Who am I? Why am I stuck playing this finite game? How can I get to a place of living for a bigger purpose? How can I become better? And only when we see that, who am I and how can I become better? Then we can help other people become better. The problem with Succession is nobody has that sense of self recognition.
Nobody gets to a place of being able to say, Hey, this is who I am. In a lot of tragedies, especially in Shakespearean tragedies, the protagonist comes to a moment of self recognition. For example, in King Lear, the protagonist gets to a place where King Lear says I was but a foolish fond man. And that ability for self recognition gave it a sense of redemption. Whereas in succession, nobody has that. Roman comes close he says "we are nothing." But after that self recognition, There is no sense of becoming better.
The show ends with Roman, just sitting at the bar and having a drink with a sly smile, which quickly turns to a deeper form of anxiety. And Kendall Roy walks off looking like a lost child, and Shiv is still playing a power game with Tom Wambsgans. Who is the new CEO and what is missing in succession is this ability for self compassion, the ability for self recognition, the ability for forgiveness and the potential to change.
St. Augustine talks about this in the confessions. He says I had hidden my face away from myself. Because I didn't want to see myself, but God you took the face that I had hidden and brought it in front of me for me to see it. That I needed to change."
St. Augustine in his own life was playing a finite game. He was living for his own pleasure. But then when he had this encounter with God, that changed him to help him to play the infinite game of thinking about philosophy, writing about philosophy, paying attention to his own spiritual life. His book Confessions is considered one of the most influential books in the Western civilization. And has become a source of inspiration for so many. So the question that succession asks ourselves as "what is in us that is making us wanting to play this finite game? . How can we become people that can recognize that thing in us that is causing us to play this finite game. To have self-compassion to forgive ourselves. And to look for a way where we do want to play the infinite game.
We do want to live for a bigger purpose. And find our happiness in that, as against how people do on succession. Where they are trying to find their happiness in just these battles of finite games. And at the end, nobody really is happy. Nobody feels loved. Everyone is isolated in their own world.
So that is the lesson that we learned from succession. To play the infinite game, to not be stuck in our finite games. To transcend through self recognition, wanting to become better, to live for a bigger purpose!