Winning or Losing Isn't Everything. Learning is.

"Argh! Why can't I beat the game?!"

After six failed attempts at building a profitable canning business and maintaining enough fish stocks in the ocean, I felt entirely discouraged. Did I really want to continue playing Conservas? It felt futile and unwinnable.

Conservas is a solo board game which was a 2024 nominee for the Golden Geek Best Solo Board Game award. In it, you play the owner of a small seafood canning company in Spain. You are in control of the whole process, from buying and taking care of your boats, to catching and canning seafood, and selling delicious tinned conservas to satisfy your customers.

There are 12 months/stages with varying goals depending on the time of the year. Having a sustainable relationship with the sea and the market is very important. If you harm the ocean by over-fishing, your nets will draw empty. But if you fail to meet your sales targets, you won't be able to keep the business afloat.

To win, players need to balance between fishing and allowing marine populations to grow. In the game, sustainability targets are just as important as financial ones. Just when you think you have mastered the game, a different scenario appears with new and unique win conditions that require you to overhaul your creative strategies.

Lao Tzu once said, 'give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime'. He could have said 'fish sustainably'.

Recalling how round six went, I realised that the aggressive over-fishing that led to collapse happened because I was over-compensating for how I lost in round five. Mere moments ago, my business went bust because I was too precious about protecting the fish stocks in the sea. "Ok, I'm going to give this one last shot."

Before starting, I carefully mapped my choices from rounds one to six, taking extra care to connect my decisions to the impact and outcomes. In round one, hasty decisions made in fear were often counter-productive whilst I was learning the game. With new insights, the careful planning in round two brought profits, but I was excessively bogged down by not losing them in round three and missed out on key opportunities. In round four, to avoid being overly cautious, I kept expanding even though the catch was stretched thin with each new boat.

As I pored over the moves, patterns of how I handled stress and crisis began to emerge. If only I had the insights I do now, back when I was navigating professional thunderstorms of epic proportions. Why did this game feel so real? It suddenly hit me.

Losing in the game equals winning in real life if I learn something more about myself in the process. I'm not trying to beat the game. I'm trying to master myself. And I didn't have to suffer irreversible, painful real world consequences to do so.

Admittedly, I was first drawn to Conservas because of how beautifully made it was. So much care went into designing the game mechanics and components. I was fascinated by how immersive the experience was with the tokens, cards, and sailing log. I felt like a struggling fisherman with a boat, just trying to survive the wine-dark sea.

After my first play, I quickly discovered that this game is a brilliant way to simulate the highs and lows of entrepreneurship. Although there are no in-game competitors or opposing players, I am pitted against myself, my assumptions and biases, my fears and anxieties, my hopes and ambitions, and my conscious and unconscious habits of being.

Although the board game ocean is choppy, this special learning environment is extremely safe. Whilst learning to optimise my canning business and manage fish stocks, no money is lost, no team mates are fighting, no customers are upset, and no fish are left rotting in the sun.

In this context, Conservas is a low-stakes sandbox for genuine self-encounter and deeper understanding, a place where I can practice setting mental and emotional boundaries, and rehearse strategies for work and life before carrying them out in the real world.

How well do you know yourself? How do you handle uncertainty and complexity, manage internal conflict, or balance competing priorities while keeping your eye on the ultimate prize? Playing a board game like Conservas mindfully might be one surprisingly effective way to find out.

Mini Exercise Take 5 minutes and list out 3 mistakes or “losses” in your past week. What did you learn from each? How might your strategy change in future? Was there anything you'll like to acknowledge yourself for?

Remember, winning or losing isn't everything. Learning is.

If play-based coaching and training intrigues you, take 2 minutes to explore PLAYTONIK. Shihui facilitates individual and team sessions as part of the PLAYTONIK coaching series, which is specially designed and developed to unlock strategic thinking, emotional agility, and creative confidence in a fun, safe and insightful learning environment.