Howard Kingston

  • Home
  • About
  • GVA TV
  • Blog
  • Clients
    • Testimonials
  • Contact
  • Work With Me
X
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Winning hand.

Success Lessons Learnt from Poker

Winning hand.

Winning hand. Photo: Jonathan Rubio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love business and sporting analogies – they’re usually pretty inspiring, if sometime contradictory. I came across these inspiring list of Poker strategies that transfer to the business world of an entrepreneur and found them really, really inspiring. Hope you enjoy them

Market Evaluation:

  • Table selection is the most important decision you can make
  • It’s ok to switch tables if you find out it’s too hard to win at your table
  • If there’s a lot of players who are irrational of inexperienced, it can be harder to win

Marketing/Branding

  • Act weak when strong
  • Act strong when weak
  • Know when to bluff
  • Help shape the stories people are telling about you

Financials

  • Always be prepared for the worst possible scenario
  • The guy who wins the most hands is not the person who makes the most money in the long run
  • The guy who never loses a hand is not the guy who makes the most money in the long run
  • Go for positive expected value, not what is least risky
  • Make sure your bank roll is big enough for the game you’re playing and the risks you’re taking
  • Play only with what you can afford to lose
  • Remember it’s a long term game, you win or lose individual sessions, but it’s the long run that matters

Strategy

  • Don’t play games you don’t understand, even if you see other people making money from them
  • Figure out the game when the stakes aren’t high
  • Don’t cheat. Cheaters don’t win in the long run
  • Be flexible, be patient and think long term
  • The players with the most stamina and focus usually win
  • Differentiate yourself – do the opposite of what everyone else on the table is doing
  • Hope is not a good plan
  • Don’t play too long – it’s much better to take a break or have a rest for the night, then come back to the table

Continued Learning

  • Read books from other people who have done it before
  • Learn by doing, theory is nice but nothing replaces actual experience
  • Learn by surrounding yourself with talented players
  • Just because you win a hand doesn’t mean you’re good & you’ve not more learning to do – you might’ve just got lucky
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for advice

Culture

  • You’ve got to love the game
  • To be really good, you’ve got to live it and sleep it
  • Don’t be cocky, don’t be flashy; there’s always someone better than you
  • Be nice and make friends – it’s a small community
  • Share what you’ve learned with others
  • Look for opportunities beyond the game you sat down to play
  • You never know who you’re going to meet, in new business partners or contacts
  • Have fun! The game is a lot more fun when you’re trying to do more than make money

Remember

  • The game begins before you site down in the seat
  • The most important decision to make is to know what table to sit at, this includes knowing when to change tables (you can make 9 times as much sitting with inexperienced players with lots of chips vs. a table with experienced players with few chips)
  • It’s never too late to change tables

Hope you enjoyed these. Big props to the very inspirational Tony Heish for these, taken from his book: Delivering Happiness – I highly recommend you check it out – I read it his weekend while travelling the Scottish highlands and it made for a fantastic weekend.

What do you think? Please commend below:

Primary Sidebar

Work With Me

Join My Next Event

Join my Next Webinar

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
Barry Shaverin: Founder and CEO of Zip World London
Barry Shaverin: Founder and CEO of Zip World London

Most obviously, Howard is great marketer. He knew which channels we should try, when we should try them, how we analyse and how to react to them….as a result we sold a lot of tickets. Which was obviously great for us.

Joel Burgess, Founder and CEO Nutrifix
Joel Burgess, Founder and CEO Nutrifix

Escape Velocity was a game changer for us. The biggest impact on us was that it gave us clear direction of what we need to achieve. It has really massively impacted on my life and given me the clear direction and the sort of tools to manage my business.

Julien Deslangles-Blanch, Regional Director, UK & Germany at General Assembly
Julien Deslangles-Blanch, Regional Director, UK & Germany at General Assembly

Howard has been with us in the past five years and has taught thousands of students. I can say he is a fantastic instructor. Honestly, students just love him.

Jakob Modéer, Entrepreneurship Program Manager, Swisscontact Worldwide
Jakob Modéer, Entrepreneurship Program Manager, Swisscontact Worldwide

Our program consists of Macedonia's top performing startups (some already doing millions in revenue $). When I asked the teams who they would like me to bring in to coach them on growth, Howard's name was proposed. Howard came in and made an overwhelming positive impact and has helped our entrepreneurs grow their businesses to the next level.

Jennifer Maerz, Editor in Chief & Program Chair, The Lean Startup Co
Jennifer Maerz, Editor in Chief & Program Chair, The Lean Startup Co

Howard gave a fantastic keynote at Lean Startup Summit London 2017. His talk blended strategic thinking with practical takeaways that engaged the audience throughout.

Popular Posts

  • 10 Productivity Tips Every Entrepreneur Should Know
  • What Great Goals Are you Working Towards (and what’s holding you back?)
  • Entrepreneurs: Stop Wasting People’s Time!
  • How to Hit 4 million Users in 6 months – A Startup Case Study
  • How to Turn Setbacks into Success, Interview with Carrie Wilkerson

25+ Essential Tools to Grow Your Business (includes $1k+ of Free Stuff)

Download free
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • About
  • GVA TV
  • Blog
  • Clients
  • Contact
  • Work With Me

Footer navigation

  • © Howard Kingston
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy

Subscribe to get my Growth Newsletter & get instant access to the Growth Toolkit, for Free




Your Privacy will always be protected

[thrive_leads id=’1689′]