The Four Games of Business
Name which game you're actually playing before you optimise the wrong one
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 82%
Cook frames business as four distinct games, each with its own definition of winning. In the artist game you are the talent and everyone you hire exists to remove friction so you can do more of your craft. In the lifestyle game the business exists to fund a target monthly income with minimum effort, freeing your time for whatever you value. In the performance game you forgo lifestyle to see how far you can push scale, impact or money. The build-and-sell game is the only finite one: you enter deliberately to exit within a few years. The power of the model is diagnostic. Most founders unconsciously optimise for one game while wishing for another, creating friction. The 'if you won the lottery, would your life change?' question cuts through it: a no means you're already living your game; a yes means you're playing the wrong one.
Origin
Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal. Jodie Cook developed the four games while reflecting on running her own agency, which she realised she had played as a lifestyle game before selling it, and used the model live to diagnose Ali's own artist-performance blend.
Core principles
- 01Different business games have opposite definitions of winning
- 02Optimising for the wrong game creates quiet, persistent friction
- 03Three of the games are infinite; only build-and-sell has a fixed end
- 04The 'magic wand' question reveals which game you truly want
- 05Your founder identity, not market logic, decides the right game
How to run it
- 1
Learn the four games
Understand artist (maximise your craft), lifestyle (fund a life with least effort), performance (see how far you can push), and build-and-sell (enter to exit).
Watch out Don't assume more scale is automatically better; that's only the performance game's win condition.
- 2
Diagnose your current game
Look at how your business is actually structured and staffed to see which game it is unconsciously serving.
- 3
Ask the magic-wand question
Ask what you'd trade off if you could wave a wand, e.g. would you give up holidays for your dream guests or bigger impact.
Pro tip Pair it with 'if you won the lottery, would your life change?' to double-check.
- 4
Choose your game deliberately
Commit to the game that fits your identity rather than the one others are selling you.
Pro tip You can blend, e.g. Ali's 'artist-performance' game, but be explicit about the blend.
Watch out Beware mimetic desire pulling you toward a game you don't actually want.
- 5
Re-align hires and metrics
Restructure who you hire and what you measure so everything serves the chosen game.
In the wild
Cook ran her social media agency deliberately as a lifestyle business: she delegated operations to a general manager, kept her own involvement minimal, and used the freed time to travel and compete in powerlifting. When COVID forced a choice between re-immersing to grow it or risking being 'tapped on the shoulder' again, she recognised the lifestyle game was over for her and sold.
→ A clean, well-timed seven-figure exit aligned with the game she'd chosen.
Ali assumed he wanted a lifestyle business, but the magic-wand test showed he'd happily skip holidays to land dream guests and would still read, learn and make videos with £100m in the bank. Cook reframed him as playing an 'artist-performance' game: an artist who can zoom out and run the craft like a performance business.
→ Ali realised he wanted freed time to do more craft, not a beach-and-chill lifestyle.
Common mistakes
Optimising the wrong game
Structuring for lifestyle while secretly craving impact, or vice versa, produces constant low-grade dissatisfaction no tactic can fix.
Letting mimetic desire pick the game
Choosing the performance game just because eight-figure founders around you play it can hijack you into someone else's definition of winning.
Is it for you?
Best for
Any founder or creator deciding how to run or grow their business over the next few years.
Not ideal for
Someone who needs concrete operational tactics rather than a strategic self-diagnosis.
From the transcript
“I think there are four games that you can play in business”
“if you won the lottery would your life change and if it's a yes then it's like you're probably not living your dream life right…”
From the episode
Stop Wasting Your Life: A Guide To Unlocking Your Full Potential I Entrepreneur Jodie Cook