Are You Doing Business With Monopoly Money?
By Kalinda Rose Stevenson

During the depths of the Great Depression, the Monopoly® game appeared in the marketplace.  For many American children, Monopoly is the first introduction to using money for business decisions.   Monopoly teaches players to buy and sell property, collect and pay rents.  The game is fun, especially for the winners. My question is, Are the lessons you learned playing Monopoly killing your capacity to make real money in your business?

Monopoly teaches at least three money myths that can keep you struggling with money in your business.

Monopoly Money Myth One is that the amount of money available is limited.  The game begins with a fixed amount of money.  The game ends with the same amount of money.  The only difference between the beginning and the end of the game is that the money, which was evenly distributed at the beginning of the game, is now concentrated in the hands of the winner. The critical point is that no one MAKES money in Monopoly. Monopoly is a zero sum game.

Compare the zero sum Monopoly game to what happens to money in business.   In business, you create a product or offer a service that actually MAKES more money.  This is how it works. You create a product. The product costs you money to produce, market, and sell.  If you sell the product for more than your costs, you make a profit. This profit is money that did not exist when you started the game.

In other words, you actually create money.  You have not only added money to your bottom line, you have added more money to the money supply.  This is the critical money difference between Monopoly and business.  Profitable businesses make money.   No one makes money in Monopoly.

Monopoly Myth One teaches players that money is a commodity in limited supply.  Monopoly cannot teach the fundamental truth that the amount of available money is potentially unlimited because money is created in transactions.  The more transactions occur, the more money is created.

Monopoly Money Myth Two teaches that the game can have only one money winner.  (The game is called Monopoly for a reason.)

As a model for doing business, Monopoly teaches that making profits in business means taking money away from other businesses, to end up with the biggest piece of the existing money supply.   This business model is still very much with us when we see businesses act like sharks at a feeding frenzy.   In fact, some businesses do win by following the Monopoly money model.

When business owners understand the real truth that the supply of available money is potentially unlimited because money is created in transactions, it takes away the need to be sharks fighting over a fixed amount of money.  Instead, enlightened business owners can create mutually beneficial joint venture relationships with other businesses.  Joint ventures allow each business to increase profits and increase the amount of money available.

The liberating money truth is that you can make more money by cooperation with other businesses than you will by attempting to take money out of the pockets of your competitors.  

Monopoly Money Myth Three is that making money means hurting other people.    In Monopoly, the only way to get more money is to take it from other people, leaving them with less money than they had when they started.  The game is over for them when they run out of money.   

Making money at the expense of others is obviously not a problem for Enron-type businesses that care only about making profits without regard for how much they hurt other people.   Monopoly originated in the Depression, when vast numbers of people endured real poverty while a minority of fat cats lived in luxury.  The Monopoly game reflects the realities of that economic era.      

 
In my own coaching experience, I have encountered many people who believe deep down that making money means hurting other people.  And since they consider themselves good, honest people, they are deeply conflicted about doing business.  They want to make more money but they don’t want to hurt other people in the process.

If you are struggling with money in your business, ask yourself if these three Monopoly Money Myths lie at the root of your problems.   As a game, Monopoly can be fun.  As a model for doing business, Monopoly Money Myths will keep you stuck in a Depression-era mindset of haves and have-nots because it teaches that money is a commodity in limited supply.

You can play a much more liberating money game in business than Monopoly can ever teach you.  What happens to business when you stop playing with Monopoly money?  You will discover that money is unlimited because money is created by transactions, cooperation is more profitable than cutthroat competition, and you can make money while serving the best interests of other people. Best of all, you are much more likely to win the money game.
 

Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D.
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