Welp MagazinePoker is as much a game of psychology as it is a game of chance. Players are required to read their opponent’s next move, determine a bluff, and pick up on giveaways that their opponent is playing with them. Because of the psychological elements of poker, business owners can benefit from adopting skills employed by poker players. These skills can benefit business owners in their personal lives and in the day-to-day running of their business.
In this article, you will find out a list of poker skills that can be employed in business successfully:
Uncertainty
Uncertainty is something you have to come to terms with, as a business owner and a poker player. Uncertainty can be very uncomfortable but unfortunately, it’s unavoidable in business. You can never be sure what’s going to happen next. A perfect example of this is the COVID-19 pandemic. It struck unexpectedly and drove millions of businesses to bankruptcy. Only the most robust and prepared businesses survived. If there’s one skill that you want to adopt from poker and apply to business, then make sure it’s preparedness for anything that life throws at you. Accept that disaster can strike at any time and deal with it efficiently when it inevitably does.
Adapt
Keeping in line with our previous point, you need to constantly evolve and adapt. When you’re playing poker, you never know who you’re playing against. In each game, you perhaps change your poker strategy according to who you’re up against. The same can be done in real life. Constantly evolving in the face of danger. If you have new competition, then adapt and change your business, adopting new marketing and sales schemes. If your industry rival’s product is better than yours, then improve your product.
Games
In poker, your opponents will try to play games with you to mislead you and throw you off. Your business rivals will do the same thing. The best way to learn to deal with these games is to prepare yourself mentally and strategize. You can’t succeed and overcome your opponent’s games until you’re a master at them yourself. If you want to beat your opponents, then you should take the time to learn about them. When you know about your opponent you will be able to counteract their strategies. You will be impervious to any games they try to play.
Loss
Loss is something that you’ll have to accept if you want to become a successful businessperson or entrepreneur. You won’t always make a profit. Coming to terms with loss can be difficult, especially if you’re already in dire financial straits. The best way to deal with loss is to prepare for it in advance. A good poker player only gambles with what they can afford to lose. The same attitude can be applied to business. Don’t invest everything into a single product, stock, or area of your business. Leave money aside so that if the worst happens, you can quickly recover.
Humility
Humility is a characteristic exhibited by only the best poker players. It can be difficult to humble oneself, but it is something you’ll want to do if you want to be a successful entrepreneur. When you do win, make sure that you don’t brag and that you accept you could have just as easily lost. A humble entrepreneur is far more likely to succeed than one who’s arrogant. With that said, don’t let humility take your edge away from you. You still need to be able to make difficult decisions and potentially cut ties with people, even if it impacts their lives negatively.
Psychology
When you’re sitting in a boardroom with competition or clients, you need to be able to read them. Poker players are fantastic at this like we mentioned in this article’s introduction. You need to be able to read a person’s tells. You will benefit massively from taking time to learn about psychology and how [and why] people make certain decisions. You need to be able to tell when a person is trying to play you, from across a table. Experts will say ‘it’s all in the eyes,’ but there’s a lot more to it than that.
Confidence
Expert poker players exude confidence. As an entrepreneur, you need to be as confident as possible. If you don’t seem confident then your opponents will go out of their ways to try and take advantage of you. Confidence is a very important quality.
If you want to be a better businessperson, then this is the article for you. A lot of the qualities professional poker players possess can be applied to business very successfully. Take all of the suggestions in this article into consideration and try to apply them to your business and yourself.
