10 Marketing Lessons I learned from binging on Street Fighter 4 for an entire week…

Last week I played Street Fighter 4 for 7 days STRAIGHT…and I walked away with 10 marketing lessons for you!

These 10 marketing lessons that I am getting ready to share with you…I either learned from or was severely reminded of by a video game.

I’ve been playing a lot of Street Fighter 4 this week.   It’s been a little bit of a rediscovery for me because I remember being extremely passionate and good at Street Fighter 2 way back when I was around 17 or so.

I kind of thought of myself as sort of an expert on the game.

Now the difference between what I played when I was 17 and what I played this week is like the difference between my Dodge Caravan and a space ship.

Suffice it to say, this game has changed quite a bit…or maybe I have gotten…less good at it? Or maybe even…dare I say it…slower?

Never.

Anyways, as I was getting my ass whipped for the 20th time or so by “A new warrior entering the ring” it started to occur to me that Street Fighter 4 is a lot like marketing…

Allow me to expand on that:

10 Marketing Lessons I learned from playing Street Fighter 4…

1. I don’t know even a quarter of everything there is to know about this game. (keep learning)

2. As soon as I think I’m really good at something, along comes some kid who is smarter, faster, and more dedicated than I am to whip my ass. (stay hungry)

3. Amazing victories come when your almost defeated. (success often rides the coattails of certain darkness)

4. Training makes me infinitely better (true)

5. No book or course will prepare you like just jumping in and doing it will (real world experience is king, get your hands dirty)

6. Embrace the suck. You will get better. (learn from those better than you even if it’s humiliating)

7. Nothing beats a well timed Ultra Super Combo (strategy always wins)

8. Computers don’t fight like people. (Search engines don’t pay for products.)

9. Beating the game brings little satisfaction. It seems it was always about the journey. (true)

10. You only need to master one character to be a champion. (pick one path and master it, burn everything else down)

So I could go on and on because well…when you do something non stop for  a while…it seems to become an analogy for everything that is important to you…funny how that works.  IN closing though, I just want to say that it was never about the game.  I think in the end it’s mostly about focusing on your strengths and being aware of your weaknesses and adjusting for them.  That’s easy to say and hard to do because it requires you to be honest with yourself, brutally so.

But I think the road to success leads through a wall of fire…and we all have to cross that.

I’m Kam, some people call me Zerofatz, and I’ll see you on the other side of that flame man!

Kam