What Galaga can teach you about Business Strategy

Galaga is a 1981 fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. It is widely regarded as a classic of the golden age of arcade video games and one of the greatest video games of all time.

It is a fixed shooter video game. The player mans a lone starfighter at the bottom of the screen which must prevent the Galaga forces from destroying all of humanity. The aim of each stage is to defeat all the Galaga aliens, which will fly into the formation from the top and sides of the screen.

I used to play the game when I was a kid and I used to hold the high score during the day. I used to observe the other players and their strategy was to shoot every object moving around the screen. They tried really hard, but what whatever they did, it was not enough to beat my high score.

After a while, I understood why their technique was not working.

Your success depends on the risks you take. Your survival depends on the risk you avoid.

While I was focusing on not getting hit by the enemies, they were actually trying to kill them, focusing on the aliens, taking risks and not thinking about their own survival.

The same lesson is valid in business, sometimes you just need to avoid risks to survive and thrive.