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New years is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.

As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.

So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.

Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.

Hey, everyone. So as some of you know, we've started this new series of video conversations, where each week I talk with founders and entrepreneurs about how they're building resilience into their businesses right now.

And in case you miss these conversations, when they happen, we are posting an excerpt right here every Thursday in your podcast feed.

So today, I'm bringing you my conversation with Simon Sinek. Simon is the author of Start With Why and the Infinite Game, and he writes about leading with purpose and cultivating smart and sane business practices.

Skills that have become especially critical at this very moment. So here you go. Here's the conversation I had with Simon just a few days ago.

First, can you just kind of outline what this idea of the infinite game is?

Absolutely. A philosopher by the name of James Kars articulated these two types of games in the mid-1980s.

Finite games and infinite games. A finite game is defined as known players, fixed rules, and agreed upon objective. There's always a beginning, middle, and end. And if there's a winner, there has to be a loser.

Then you have infinite games. Infinite games are defined as known and unknown players, which means any player can join at any time.

The rules are changeable, which means you can play however you want. And the objective is to perpetuate the game, to stay in the game as long as possible.

When I learned this idea, I sort of profound because we are players in infinite games every day of our lives. This no such thing as being number one in your marriage, for example.

You can't win in your marriage. The goal is to make it last as long as possible. That's the goal.

There's no such thing as winning global politics. There's no such thing as winning education. There's no such thing as winning healthcare.

There's no such thing as winning your career. And there's definitely no such thing as winning business.

But if we listen to the language of so many of our leaders, they talk about being number one, being the best, or beating their competition.

Based on what? And so if we have to be players in the infinite game, we have to play within infinite mindset.

So there are five principles that you outline in the book, particularly for business leaders who want to try and adopt an infinite mindset.

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