What playing laser tag with my kid taught me about strategy & startups

I hit others 2-3x more than I got hit. He got hit 2-3x more than he hit someone else. And yet he kicked my ass. LOL

So yesterday our family went to Mega Bangna shopping center in Bangkok to take my son to ‘Harborland’, which is this massive kids entertainment complex.

They have one of the 5 largest indoor playgrounds in the world and so i spent the first couple of hours doing my best to follow my kid around this huge multi-level play center.

Harborland Mega Bangna

But then came time to play laser tag as we’d purchased a package that included laser tag. So we played two games of laser tag…

First one with 4 teams and a total of about 9 people. My son took 1st place and I took 8th.

Second one with 2 teams and my son took 3rd place and I took fourth. But our team got destroyed by the other team.

Now for what I learned.

I played the games the way i’d expect to fight in a real war

I watch a lot of movies about the Navy SEALs and things like that… and so you learn a thing or two about how they move. So even though I hadn’t been in any armed forces myself, I feel like I did a decent job mimicking what i’d learned from those movies.

And so i’d change positions, keep my weapon ready to fire at all times, etc. And generally i’d say that in both games i maintained a ratio in which I hit someone at least 2-3x more often than I got hit.

My son on the otherhand was playing like you’d expect an 8-year old to play

He just walked around the whole place constantly with little regard for cover and just walked right up to people and either shot them or got shot.

I’d estimate in hindsight that he probably got hit 2-3x more often than he hit someone else.

But it didn’t matter because he was racking up points.

My son scored much higher because there was no real penalty for getting hit

If you got hit, your jacket would light up and you wouldnt be able to fire for like 6 seconds. But you didn’t lose points.

And so even if he got hit by someone he’d often just keep following them and then hit them back as soon as his jacket light went off.

So in the first game, for example, he racked up massive points. As he was the only one playing this strategy.

Note that others probably also scored a ton of points by hitting him… but this didn’t matter as those points were distributed among many people. And so nobody came close to his score.

He beat everyone in that game.

Lesson #1: If there is little to no penalty for getting hit, than you should optimize for laying down fire

You see my son had understood a very powerful lesson from his previous games…. if it doesn’t matter how much you get hit or how accurate you are.. then just lay down a shitload of firepower.

And it’s kind of like startups…. there is no penalty if you enjoy the process. And so rather than thinking your whole life about starting one.. it is generally better to just start one.

And if it fails you start or join another one. And you just keep going like this till hopefully one succeeds.

Because there is no real penalty for failure other than your time and perhaps a bit of money.

Lesson#2: The problem comes when you play in a team

So in the 2nd laser tag game we were 2-on-2 against a couple of guys that were a bit younger than me. And obviously had played a bit before.

My son played his strategy walking around getting shot while I played mine.

I probably hit the other 2 guys at least 2-3x more than they hit me… and it got to the point where they really just focused on my son as they knew I was bad news.

And their strategy worked.. they destroyed us with more than 2x points than us. And 95% of those points were scored against my son who they were just lighting up every 10 seconds or so as he walked around.

What lesson can be learned for startups

I love startups and have started many over the course of my life. And I tried to always do this with others.

Also i’d say that I was pretty much always the person that was most committed to the idea. Perhaps in part because it was often my idea.

And I viewed that as long as I love it…. than there is no penalty for getting hit. Kind of like in laser tag. You can try as many times as you want till you succeed (ie. lesson #1).

But i’ve also learned the 2nd lesson the hard way… because sometimes your team is not as committed. And if you’re up against powerful other teams… you absolutely need the entire team to be both good & committed.

So this is what I now optimize for. How do you find team members who are both good and gonna be committed?

For example… how do you detect a drive towards commitment and success vs. folks that are more likely to optimize for enjoying their weekends?

One thing i’ve learned is that most folks are either entrepeneurs or they are not. And you don’t change them. They need to change themselves first.

Anyway, I can’t say i have the answer… but i’ve definitely learned some important lessons along the way.