One of my favorite hobbies is to actually play poker during my downtime for fun. The great thing about playing poker is that I am constantly meeting amazing entrepreneurs and business owners. It seems like poker is a very popular choice amongst those in the business world.
The reality behind it is that poker and business has a lot of similarities. The two worlds have a lot of things in common and lots of life lessons and skills actually transfer between the two.
In this article, I share 5 poker skills that translate to the business world:
1. Money Management
Whether you get an investor or get some revenue yourself, you need to have great money management to be successful with a business. The quickest way to go broke in poker no matter how good you are is poor money management. Risk too much of your money at one time and things can go wrong causing you to lose everything that you have in poker.
When it comes to business, you need to manage your money really well. Nail it and then scale it. Don’t scale too fast because things will end up getting messy. As a business owner, you have to manage your money well and make smart decisions just like you would in the poker world.
2. Reading People
The best poker players know when to call an opposing player because they’re bluffing and fold when they feel as if they are beat. This is known as poker psychology or being able to read your opponents on the table. Business is very similar because you have to read other people.
Whether it’s employees, potential customers or investors, it’s crucial that you’re able to read other people in the business world. Understanding certain situations is extremely pivotal because it allows you to access everyone involved and make the best choice based on your read on everyone.
3. Patience
Poker is a game of patience. Impatient people don’t do well in the long run because you cannot play every single hand that you get. Most good players actually fold over 80% of their hands while only calling about 20% of hands. Business and entrepreneurship is the same thing.
You’re not always going to be successful in the world of entrepreneurship. You need extreme patience when trying to build the next big company. If you fail, you need to be patient, review the situation and bounce back.
4. Risk Management
In poker, you have to manage your risk. Is it smart to put all your chips into play with a mediocre hand that may or may not win? Probably not. You want to get all your chips in when you have the best hand in the game, but you’ll probably be a lot more careful when you don’t have such a good hand.
Business and entrepreneurship is the same thing. You must be able to manage risk when it comes to spending money on marketing, making big decisions and rolling out features to your customers. You must reflect and understand the type of risk that is involved before making any decisions.
5. Always Sell
As a poker player, you’re constantly selling. Every bet, every reaction and every move you make is a sales pitch to the rest of the players on the table. You’re trying to get opponents to believe that you have a strong hand when you’re bluffing and that you have a weak hand when you want them to call.
In business and entrepreneurship, you need to always be selling. In poker, by selling others you’re getting paid. In business, it’s the same thing. If you don’t sell, you won’t get paid. As a result of that, you should always be hustling and trying your best to sell yourself and services to others.
Conclusion
In this article, I share 5 poker skills that translate to the business world. What are some poker skills that you think are important for business owners to know about?
