It’s All a Game
WRITTEN BY ALEX GERTSBURG, ESQ.
“Think of business as a good game. Lots of competition and a minimum of rules. You keep score with money.” – Bill Gates
“Business is a game, and as with all games, the team that puts the best people on the field and gets them playing together wins. It’s that simple.” – Jack Welch.
Folks who know me know that I was born without the part of the brain that allows men to care about professional sports. In most cases, if I’m not at the game drinking beers with my friends surrounded by 20,000 screaming fans, I couldn’t possibly care less.
With one exception…
Playoffs. There’s something about the stakes going up that make consequential games so much more interesting than regular season play.
This is why the last few NFL weekends have been so fun and reminded me of a couple entrepreneurial concepts that seemed worth sharing.
The game of business.
If you think of the life span of a business venture as a game, like a sporting event, you have a lot more fun going through the ups and downs until you reach the end of it.
That’s the mind-shift. It’s all a game.
And it really is.
The Start-up Phase is just the first quarter or the first drive down-field. You don’t lose hope when there’s an interception or a fumble. You know there’s three-quarters of play left.
And, you’re happy to be playing the game you love. You’re having a good time.
“I can’t believe I get to do this for a job!”
Nor do you lose your mind just because you did well in that first quarter. You have to know – when you’re a startup – that there’s a lot more game left. When you lose that key employee, or when you get that cease and desist letter from your competitor’s attorney, or when you’re on the receiving end of a ransomware attack, or when you lose that giant account, there’s a lot more game left.
The Scale-Up Phase – when you’re becoming a lot more efficient, iterating from your mistakes, and gathering a solid executive team around you – that’s the second quarter. If you’re taking risks and putting yourself out there to attract more customers and better talent, you’re doing it right but you’re still going to hit some serious walls on your way. You’re going to make some horrible play-calls and you’re going to worry about looking like an idiot.
Or, you can choose not to, knowing that you’re still playing a long game and anything can happen.
“Play games with my friends? All-day long? Are you kidding me right now?”
Half-time is regrouping and pep talks. There are always fantastic opportunities for that in business. Weekly all-hands meetings, quarterly and annual planning meetings, inter-company messages, happy hours, and team-building events.
Third-Quarter – you’re getting into some more sophisticated and complex strategies. You’re fielding top-notch talent and learning from the competition and the industry, particularly from the successes and failures in their play during the first half, and from your own.
Most importantly, you keep playing. No matter what. Because it’s a game and you’re happy to be playing it.
“Come on ref!”
Fourth-Quarter – your players are tired. Some are injured. But you see the end in sight. You rally the troops for some more intensity to get to that final minute of play. You’re thinking about exits and succession planning. The crowd is going nuts.
Or, maybe you’ve gotten your teeth kicked in for the last three quarters.
You still have to play, and you’re still playing. Right until that final whistle.
Life is so much more fun when you’re just playing a game.
(If you want to take this thinking to truly another level, check out the Infinite Game by Simon Sinek, which shows you how to structure your business so the whole point isn’t to win or lose, but to keep playing. There’s never a final whistle. Really fascinating read.)
Welcome New GL Attorneys!
Three incredible attorneys recently joined our team and have hit the ground running! We are pleased to welcome Stewart D. Roll, Charlene Li & Eleina Thomas to the firm. We are pleased to welcome Stewart D. Roll, Charlene Li & Eleina Thomas to the firm. We look forward to the awesome contributions they will make to our firm.
Stewart D. Roll, Esq., a Senior Partner, is a highly experienced attorney in the areas of international technology 
licensing, litigation, and mergers and acquisitions. Fun fact: he also is an instrument-rated FAA licensed pilot!
Charlene Li, Esq., Senior Counsel, focuses her practice on business global expansion strategy and 
implementation, wide-ranging commercial transactions and contract negotiations, software joint development, and much more. Prior to her immigration to the U.S., Ms. Li was a practicing lawyer in the People’s Republic of China.
Eleina Thomas, Esq., Senior Associate, was an assistant prosecuting attorney with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s
Office prior to joining GL. She has over a decade of trial experience successfully prosecuting high-profile, complex criminal cases. Ms. Thomas is appointed to the litigation and white-collar defense practice areas.
Insurance Engagements
We are looking for independent insurance agencies that might be interested in an M&A deal! Our GLA team is a full-service advisory firm facilitating middle-market mergers and acquisitions that can walk you through the process and help you reach your company goals. Here are our current engagements for independent insurers:
- Independent property and casualty insurance carrier. Revenue between $0-$5MM in Ohio.
- Independent insurance agencies with specialists/niche market agents (i.e. amusement park insurance, environmental, construction, etc.). Revenue between $500k-$10MM – can be anywhere in the US besides California.
- Smaller, personal lines independent insurance agency that has 1-2 agents. Revenue between $1.5MM-$2MM – located in Northeast Ohio.
- Independent insurance agencies with a focus on family and small commercial lines. Revenue between $2MM-$7MM – located in Cleveland, Ohio, and East Suburbs.
- Established agencies with 10+ years under their belt with an 80% retention rate and has 1-5 agents. Personal, commercial, and/or specialty lines. Revenue between $1MM-$2MM – located in Northeast Ohio
- Independent insurance agencies, personal, commercial, and/or specialty lines. Would purchase an ancillary business as well (e.g. 401k management, benefits administration, etc.). Seeking owners that want to stay on in management and/or in a minority ownership role. Revenue between $1MM-$200MM – located Nationwide including Hawaii and Alaska.
- Independent commercial lines agencies with revenue between $1MM-3MM and are located in Northeast Ohio.
To find out more details or set up a consultation, contact us here.
Seeking Senior Legal Recruiter!
In an effort to keep up with client demand and expand our legal service offerings, we continue to add senior attorneys to our bench. As such, we have a current opening for a dedicated, in-house recruiter to manage our attorney recruitment and onboarding process. Extensive recruitment and legal industry experience required. The position carries above-market compensation and benefits commensurate with experience and verifiable results. Read more for full position details and please feel free to share this information with qualified individuals.
If interested, please submit a resume and cover letter to [email protected] and reference the position in the subject line.
These Are a Few of My Favorite Plug-Ins
WRITTEN BY ALEX GERTSBURG, ESQ.
If you don’t use browser plug-ins, you’re missing out. Here are the ones I use . . .
- One Tab: Saves all of those open tabs on your browser with one click so you can come back to them later and so you don’t have a billion of them open, which is both distracting and memory-draining on your computer.
- Grammarly: Fixes your typos for you as you type.
- Marker.to: This allows you to highlight anything you read online (there are lots of other good ones out there that do this).
- Evernote: This allows you to clip pages and save them in your Evernotes (I think there’s one of these for every note app out there).
- Momentum: A great way to start your day – sends you good mindset messages and reminders, great pictures, To-Do lists, and more; highly customizable.
- Fakespot: Tells you which Amazon sellers are manipulating the reviews you see and allows you to sort or eliminate the ones that do.
