Business and Startup Lessons Learned from the World of Warcraft

The World of Warcraft is an MMORPG that I played way back in vanilla. What a game. What an experience. The world was wholly new. It was amazing to explore.

Here are some lessons from WoW that I pulled from Travis Lachner on LinkedIn that just made so much sense in terms of business building, leveraging ideas from Agile/Scrum, and more.

In WoW: Complete small quests alone. Complete raid bosses with a group/clan!

In Biz: Execute small tasks solo. Save planning and meetings for large projects or large items that need to be broken down!

In WoW: Use talent/skill points with clear intent. Specialize into your play style.

In Biz: Learn compounding skills that stack. Specials toward your talents and interests!

In WoW: The healer keeps everyone alive with little credit or glory.

In Biz: Fill your role selflessly. Work to be respected, not recognized.

In WoW: Grind levels with a partner of a supporting class.

In Biz: Find business partners with complementary skill sets. Go full cross-functional!

In WoW: Don’t be afraid to die. It’s part of the journey.

In Biz: Don’t be afraid to fail. It’s part of the journey. The only way we learn is by trying new things!

Here are a few others that I’ve thought of from my experiences in the World of Warcraft.

In WoW: There are multiple ways to earn extra gold. You have to specialize and sell your wares.

In Biz: There are always multiple ways to earn income. You have to go deep and focus on those customer demographics to be successful.

In WoW: Optional quests are optional. But they can unlock powerful items and weapons needed later in game.

In Biz: Go beyond the functional role you play. Engage with others, learn from leaders outside your sphere. Have conversations. Build relationships. You’ll need them in the future.

In WoW: Daily (Blue) Quests are meant to create patterns of engagement that become part of your routine.

In Biz: Doing the small things at work create the discipline of getting-things-done and a culture of delivery.

Any lessons from your gaming days?