From the author: “It so happened that, while implementing management consulting projects, I discovered certain patterns in the formation and decline of a business. After researching them, I found solutions to lengthen the life cycle of companies. These solutions have been implemented in my own company as well as in the companies of my clients, which has allowed many of them to avoid decline and achieve continuous, sustainable business growth.

I also found a relationship between the length of a company's life cycle and some ability of its owner, which can be called a "creative function", that is, a function to create a company.

Maker's Games is the first attempt to lay out the patterns I've discovered. The book provides practical advice for owners on how to develop or enhance their "creative function" as well as recommendations on how to use the laws of expansion to take the business to the next level of development.

Evgeny Sotnikov

The proposed book is based on the ideas of L. Ron Hubbard, a writer, humanist, creator of a unique management technology.

Book excerpts

Goals and survival. Obviously, the most favorable state in this universe is a violent attack. When the creator just starts the game, he has a passion, a desire to conquer the whole world (or at least the market), huge goals related to achieving financial well-being, success, owning property. He has nothing to lose, so he does not particularly think about the possibility of failure. He is happy when he manages to win a game, to cope with a task that is impossible for others, to complete an impossible mission.

The goal that he sought to achieve is usually associated with some kind of possession, it is quite material. He desperately needs this goal, because, in his opinion, the failure associated with achieving this goal is a threat to his survival.

There is a big difference between "want" and "need". Theoretically, everyone wants a smart car and a big house, but only the demiurge needs all this! His life energy is only put to use when his pursuit of a goal is stimulated by the need to achieve a higher level of survival.

Everyone has their own level of survival. It is enough for one to have shoes for $50, while the other will not even look at shoes under $1000. The more "necessary" the demiurge is, the higher his goal, and the greater the caliber of his game called "business".

But as the demiurge moves towards his goal, he increasingly increases his level of survival, "acquires" property. He gets a house, a dacha, a car... And now he falls into the "ownership trap". Having achieved material well-being, the demiurge may "get stuck in his victory" and become very cautious, since now he owns something that he can lose. This trap nullifies the big game. The goal of the demiurge becomes: "Not to lose what I have." The purpose of the retention that is available does not imply an attack, this is an extremely small caliber of the game.
Playing the game "Do not lose what is available," the demiurge begins to experience a shortage of problems, a shortage of barriers that could be overcome. A decrease in the number of barriers, as well as a decrease in the quality of barriers, lead the demiurge into a depressed state, since he begins to experience a lack of happiness. No barriers - no overcoming barriers - no happiness. Therefore, barriers become extraordinarily valuable. The Demiurge begins to hold on to problems without trying to resolve them. After all, the resolved problem ceases to exist, which means that with each resolved problem, the “outside the game” state increases.

Then, in order to cope with the deficit of problems, the demiurge begins to attract irrational problems to himself. For example, one owner with whom we had a chance to work, having earned a lot of money, left the active business and bought commercial real estate, which he rented out. It was too small a game for his size. He began to mope, complain about life, create problems out of everything. He fell ill with diabetes, lost a large amount of money, having invested it in a deliberately unprofitable project, and began to regularly visit us, as doctors, for a consultation. At some point, we realized what his real problem was, and asked: “What do you want?”. "Don't know. Probably want something, ”was the answer. “Find yourself a purpose. One that inspires you. Truly inspired. Your problem is that you don't have a game, and you don't have a game because you don't have a goal. You have nowhere to go, you already have everything, you are not playing the game, you are going with the flow, and your life force is not being used. Find something for which you would need a lot of money. Want to buy a yacht, a plane, want to build a castle. Find something else that you need as much as before, when you still had nothing, and you needed money, a house, a smart car. And he really did. He went into politics, where a very big game awaited him, and became happy again.

When the goal is reached, the creator needs to find a new, even bigger goal, and start the next game. The motto of any demiurge: "The game must go on!".

Creation block. Sometimes some figure from a big game, a top manager of a large company who earns good money, undertakes to teach a petty demiurge, for example, his husband or wife, who is taking his first steps in business, and somehow making ends meet. It seems to the figure that all this does not make sense. Why worry, live at work, settle problems with staff, loans and fiscal authorities, if this does not bring the money that he receives monthly as a salary. Why this fuss? He does not see, cannot feel the joy of creation experienced by the demiurge who plays the game. He doesn't understand the problems an aspiring creator faces. For him, all this simply does not make sense: “What kind of work with people? You are the owner! I threw in money, gave out tasks to everyone, and enjoy life!

Well, yes, that's exactly what he would have done, these are two dimensions. And that's sad, sometimes the figures can be very convincing. So convincing that they manage to persuade the demiurge to the idea that he is not capable of creating.

Once a client came to our office - a very famous personality in the world of show business, who created his show programs not only in the CIS, but also in Europe. He was clearly upset. He said he needed advice on a business management system because he was tired of manual management. My partner and I started a standard cycle of consultations, talked about the structure of the company, the delegation of authority and the formation of regulations. But watching the client's reaction, we realized that he does not need it, this is not his destruction, not his problem. We were smart enough to stop and start asking questions. And it turned out that someone who is an authority for him, but, apparently, is not a demiurge, convinced him that he was not a businessman. Obviously, this someone was talking about mechanics, but the demiurge took it as an inability to breathe life. He agreed, and having agreed, he stopped himself, stopped creating.

Alas, this happens to the demiurges. Let's face it, the only thing that can stop the process of creation is not in the outside world, but inside the demiurge, and is nothing more than a decision that he is no longer able to create. And this decision can override his natural ability.
As soon as we found out what happened, we asked our client a question: “Tell me, before you found out that you were not able to build a business, did you create all these show projects of yours that collected sold out viewers?”

He replied, "Yes, I did."

Then we said: "But since you could do it before, then you can continue to do it now."

You should have seen his face! His eyes widened, he jumped up and started shaking hands with us enthusiastically and thanking us for our help! He started talking about his plans and that right now he came up with a new amazing show, and he already has money to promote it, and ... It's rare to meet such a happy person! We offered to return our payment to him, but he flatly refused, saying that we helped him VERY, and, still continuing to exude gratitude, ran out of the office. He returned to business and created many more wonderful shows.

The moral of the story is this: if you are a demiurge, and if someone is trying to discount your ability to create, just disagree. The only person who can take away or block this ability is yourself.