Another business idea down the drain
I tell everyone who worked so hard for the last 2 years:
It's over...
This dog don't hunt...
You worked for nothing...
I'm sorry.
I'm now 5 years in, with 2 failed "business ventures"...
...after throwing my career in IT sales down the drain.
currently employed in a warehouse equipped with steel toecaps and hi-vis
working antisocial hours to make the most of the daylight
How did I get here?
Did I quit?
Did I fail?
Should I stop trying?
Just... strive for an average life?
Nobody will judge me... No one even knows who I am.
It would be so easy to give up on myself
Go back to spending most of my time playing video games?
Make the most of a mediocre life?
This is a snapshot of what was running through my mind.
Then I realised.
If video games could get me and countless others obsessed with them
Can we flip the script?
Of course we can.
I can bring value to the world through behavioural design (or gamification)
But there's no way in hell I'm going to manage it alone
Not without standing on the shoulders of giants.
So I offer my thanks to those who have paved the way.
This is not a sponsored post.
It began with a YouTube search: "Gamification"
To this day, one of the most viewed videos in the search is Yu-kai Chou in his TEDx:
When Yu-kai introduced his Octalysis framework it was clear he put his heart and soul into it.
There are many advocates and evangelists of behavioural design today.
There were far fewer when Yu-kai began back in 2003.
He made waves and changed the world of behavioural design.
For no reason other than out of pure passion and a bold vision.
Yu-kai knew what I was thinking.
We had the same question:
Why is it so easy for games to captivate us, and how can we use this knowledge to improve our lives?
He said it in another way:
"How to harness the power of play"
This seemed like the best place to start...
"How can I find more about this guys work?" I asked myself
Found his website (https://yukaichou.com/) : he puts so much out there for free
Devoured his book of gamification fundamentals crafted into rich, digestible snacks:
"Actionable Gamification"
Now I cannot help it...
It feels like a superpower
The Octalysis framework is like a map of my motivation
Any time I am compelled to do something...
...Octalysis lets me pinpoint what is influencing my decisions
I can then reverse engineer this concept and apply it in other areas...
...anywhere...
Personal life
Career goals
Products
Services
Relationships
Negotiations
Customer Service
Marketing
Managing Employees
Even the most mundane and tedious tasks can be fun with behavioural design
We can live in a world where work never has to feel like work
Being a customer never has to feel like being a customer
Being a boss never has to feel like being a boss
But we still achieve the desired result
Thanks to the pioneers and evangelists of behavioural design like Yu-kai Chou
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David Mordecai
Objective Obsessions