August
4, 2021
7 min read
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Board games are an entertainment option chosen by millions of people around the planet. Some predicted its disappearance after the arrival of video games and the development of the internet … but here they continue and continue to add new players every day.
There are some eternally classics, such as Chess , the strategy game par excellence that has included Albert Einstein, Salvador Dalí and Abraham Lincoln among its fans.
But there are other more modern games – some very recent – that continue to add new followers among entrepreneurs and millionaires. There are specific games that follow financial or business themes – like Cashflow, by Robert Kiyosaki – but not all of them are a good fit on a Saturday with family or friends. Let’s talk here about fun, exciting games that will leave you asking for more.
I know this list will cause me problems with some of my friends, because there are hundreds of brilliant games. It’s hard to choose, but let’s give it a try. Want to jump-start your entrepreneurial brain while having a good time? Here are five ideas for this weekend.
Image: Amazon
According to Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, Catan is one of the best strategy games out there, and many other Silicon Valley leaders confirm it . Since its launch in 1995 in Germany, the game has grown like wildfire and is translated into more than 18 languages, with different extensions and variants that see thousands of tournaments and clubs around the world.
In Catán, you play as an explorer or colonizer of the island “Catán”. To do this, you must be lucky and employ appropriate resource management strategies, strategic locations, business lines, and management of negotiations with your competition. One of the main advantages over other similar games consists in the nature of its board, which is always changing, so that no two games are ever the same; This offers endless possibilities and guarantees an exciting and addictive evening.
Business skills:
- Strategic vision.
- Response to change.
- Resource and inventory management.
- Territorial planning.
- Negotiation.
Find it on Amazon here.
Image: Amazon
If you think, as I do, that being an entrepreneur includes much more than finance and management, you will agree that a review of history and cultures can be positive for any social or business conversation.
Timeline is a card game that, as the name suggests, consists of creating a precise timeline with various historical, scientific, sporting events and more. It is a general culture game (like Marathon or Trivial Pursuit ), friendly and fast, for all people.
It is a game that grows constantly and that facilitates learning in the process, strengthening sequential and historical thinking, quick reaction and a better knowledge of world history.
Business skills:
- General culture.
- Sequential thinking.
- Social skills.
- Strategic thinking.
- Attention and reflexes.
Find it on Amazon here.
Image: Amazon
Stratego is the only two-person game on this list and it’s one that you win before you start. In it, you play as the commander of an army that has different types of soldiers and weapons, belonging to a specific military hierarchy, from foot soldiers to the highest commanders. Your objective: to catch the flag of the opposing army (before they catch yours).
At the beginning of the game you must arrange your army on the board to maximize your attack and defense strategy. The turn of the Screw? Neither player can see the arrangement of the opposing army; that is revealed as the game progresses.
They have called the Stratego a simplified chess … or a sophisticated Battleship. Either way, it will be a game that you will want to return to constantly.
Business skills:
- Strategic vision.
- Management of uncertainty.
- Planning in changing environments.
- Risk management.
- Resource management.
Find it on Amazon here.
Image: Amazon
Scrabble is an award-winning game in which competitors have to make words from a random group of letters drawn from a bag; and then place them on the board so that they score the most points.
Mark Zuckerberg played it at Harvard (in fact, he created a program to beat his main opponent) and Alec Baldwin plays it between scenes, while millions on the planet do it competitively with tournaments on five continents.
Scrabble is not just a word game, but a lateral thinking vehicle that requires the use of both hemispheres; language, spatial, mathematical and emotional intelligence skills to avoid cognitive biases that allow you to see different options within a limited set of available letters.
In its simplicity is its genius. From this list, it is the fastest game of matches, easy to take on the road and known everywhere.
Business skills:
- Lateral thinking.
- Creative discernment.
- Language skills.
- Mental mathematics.
Find it on Amazon here.
Image: Amazon
There can’t be a list like this without one of the great classics. Monopoly is the quintessential real estate game. Surely you came to hate him during your childhood (too long … and in the end all the cousins ended up fighting); but it is well worth being revisited now that you are an adult with entrepreneurial spirits. This is the game that Robert Kiyosaky played with his “rich dad” and one that you should play as well.
In the game, you become a real estate entrepreneur. Depending on the version, you can buy “streets” or “countries” or “attractions”, in which you later build houses and hotels for which you charge “rent” to other people who are unlucky enough to fall there. You can create monopolies in communications and services … or fall into the clutches of justice and spend a couple of nights in jail.
Business skills:
- Strengthening of assets.
- Medium-term strategy.
- Generation of cash flow.
- Credit prudence.
- Creation of passive income.
Find them in Amazon here ( Tourist ) and here ( Monopoly )
Honorable mentions
These are other games that might interest you if you want to have fun and develop new business skills.
There are hundreds of different board games, for all tastes and ages. They are a true tool that, in addition to the specific skills of each game, will help you develop different types of intelligence, increase your social coefficient and accelerate your reaction capacity.
They are also useful as a training tool within your own company. Whether at home with family or friends; With partners or collaborators, a good board game can change the dynamics, shake up the routine, and create a positive atmosphere of friendship and collaboration.