09/16/2026
Arcade Mentality 🙌 Scoreboard will take care of itself. Enjoy the process.
Earlier this year, I was in Chicago celebrating with my nephew after he won his wrestling sectional.
Over dinner, we were talking about his season, the medal he just earned, and the excitement of heading down to state.
He’s proud of that medal - as he should be.
During our conversation I shared an idea with him that applies not just to wrestling, but to life.
I call it the arcade mentality.
Think about what happens when you go to an arcade…
You spend hours playing games, collecting tickets, and at the end you trade those tickets in for a prize.
But here’s the funny part…
The prize is almost never as good as the experience of playing the games.
You might spend hours earning thousands of tickets… only to walk away with something small from the counter. A toy. A trinket. Maybe a whoopee cushion.
The real fun was never the prize.
It was playing the game.
So I asked him a simple question:
If you could go to the arcade and play unlimited games for four hours, but you couldn’t win any tickets or prizes, would you still go?
Of course he said yes.
The joy comes from playing, not just winning.
That’s the mindset I try to carry into life.
Whether it’s wrestling, business, investing, or any craft you choose to pursue, the goal is to find something you enjoy so much that the process itself becomes rewarding.
You enjoy practicing.
You enjoy learning.
You enjoy getting a little better each day.
And when you approach life that way, something interesting happens.
The results tend to take care of themselves.
Legendary coach Bill Walsh talked about this idea often - focus on the process, focus on the field of play, and the scoreboard will handle itself.
That’s the arcade mentality.
Find something you love doing.
Bring energy and curiosity to it every day.
And focus on improving along the way.
At the end of the day, the medals, trophies, and money are just the prizes behind the counter.
The real reward is the game itself.
