The Abundance Game, Is It Really Worth Playing?

 

The Abundance game is a personal development roller coaster board game.  Strap in!

My First Impression

When I first saw the abundance game online, I thought to myself “Kind of looks a Disney Lion King type game… not sure if I’m really interested.”  Have you ever judged something that had more value than you gave it credit?  I sure did.

Only until a friend invited me to play the game at his home that my whole opinion shifted.  Though in some ways similar to Robert Kiyosaki’s “Cashflow” game, I was shocked.  My mind said aloud, “This is awesome!”  I discovered the abundance game was fun, insightful, and carried a dynamic depth to it.

My wife and I fell in love with it.  We bought our first abundance game two years ago at a Higher Laws seminar.  We’ve played it 50+ times.  We’ve admittedly played the game at 3:00am in the morning before our kids would wake up (I know… kinda hardcore).

Who is the Abundance game for?

Awesome people!  No seriously, I’ve met incredible people at these games with big dreams who take big action.  Entrepreneurs, real estate investors, dream-chasers, winners, growth gurus, financial freedom fighters, and more.  I’ve met my best friends through the game’s community.  They say your results in life will generally reflect that of your five closest friends.  If you love to grow, connect, learn, and have fun!  This game is for you.

Of course, when you open the box, a wizard isn’t going to pop out, go “SHAZAM!” and your instantly awesome and having the best time of your life.  My attitude and excitement I brought to the game was what really unlocked the full experience.

I’ve played with tens of men and women who want even more abundance with 5 general categories:

1) Time

2) Money / Business

3) Relationships

4) Influence

5) Personal Happiness / Unleashing their Potential

The word Abundance, stems from the root latin word Abundantia, or “overflowing”.  Are there areas of your life you would love to overflow even more?  I know there is for me!  The Abundance Game show players that abundance is an inside-out process, suggested in one of the game cards:

“For things to change, I must change.  For things to get better, I must get better.” – Jim Rohn, famous American Entrpreneur and Business Philospher

While fun and dynamic.  The game is a powerful learning tool because it simulates decisions that we might make in real life.  How do you think when you could buy a 24-unit real estate building?  Or respond when another player loses valuable points?

What’s the Game’s History?

Brandon Broadwater, the creator of the game, invested two years into building the game.  When my wife and I attended his”Master Your Power Within” seminar, I learned that the game is played in over 17 countries (recently introduced to Netherlands and Guam)  Brandon invested over 2 years to create the game.  Brandon shares his story of approaching Robert Kiyosaki, asking him for advice in how to take a game worldwide.  Robert showed him, and the rest is history.  The game actually had an old title “Serve to Be Rich” but was later changed to “The Abundance Game”.  The game was released in 2007, the Chinese year of Abundance.

The game costs $297 USD plus shipping (around $315 USD total).  You won’t find this game in a Walmart type store.  If you want to purchase the abundance game – the easiest way is to visit the Higher Laws store where you can buy it online.  If you happen to attend a Higher Laws event like I did, you can buy one there too.

Why It’s a Powerful Learning Tool

On the gameboard cover, there’s two characters: a Lion and a Hyena.  These two characters are symbolic of two parts inside of us.  The Lion represents are Highest Self (the part that is courageous, resourceful, motivated, building).  The Hyena (happily hoarding a vault stacked with cash) embodies the Ego Self (Selfish, Cynical, Fearful, Resistant to Change).

The game invites players to pay attention to the inner dialogue that each of us have within our Lion or Hyena.

It is the epitome of this lesson:

“Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we respond to it” – Lou Holtz, successful NFL winning Football Coach

One of my favourite parts of the abundance game is that like in life, players are given opportunities and circumstances.  How we respond to them determines our performance in the game.  Hyena-type thinking delays progress while  Whether a player might be decisive or indecisive, they will receive consequences during the game that will influence their capacity to be both abundant with their financial outcome and character (measured in PE – Potential energy, will describe more later).

The Abundance Game Objective:

“Get to the Abundance Track, and the person who serves the most wins!”

One of the coolest rules I think is profound in the game:

“The game does not end until every player has arrived in the Abundance track”

Players performance our primarily influenced by two factors

1) Their passive or residual income – you use a tool called a Financial Statement to keep track.  Took me a game or two to get used to it, but it increased my financial literacy dramatically – and it’s fun to watch more cash flow in!  You pick up Small Opportunity Cards (cost $5000 or less) Big Opportunity Cards (cost $5000 or greater) and Market Cards (changes in economy or government that influence your cashflow for better or worse)

2) PE – or Potential Energy (your way of thinking, creativity and motivation) – measured on a scale from 1-10.   PE is gained or lost from serving others (2 PE gained to the player served) picking up Spiritual Man cards (excellent lesson that increase PE), or Natural Man cards (describes poor/ineffective habits that generally decrease PE)

 

 

At the conclusion of multiple games, I’ve listened to People express one element  they find different than from any board game experience.  It’s the element of “interaction.”  How does the interaction play out?  On your turn, you have two choices – you can roll the dice or serve a player.  Serving a player means you share an uplifting story, share financial knowledge, life lesson, or ask what their dream is and recommend how they can get there.

I’ve watched good friends have break-through moments, start businesses, and moved to tears during these moments.  Of course it doesn’t happen all the time, but it gives permission for players to share things they normally wouldn’t in any other environment.  It’s amazing to watch the magic unfold at this part of the game.

Gameplay Recommendations:

Give yourself 2-3 hours to play the game.

Be patient with your first or second game.  Depending if you’ve played Cashflow before, it’ll take some time to adapt to the game.  My best game play experiences started after my 2nd game.

Shuffle the cards.  Not much fun when you run into 2 to 3 of the same cards in one round.

Do the debrief (sharing your lessons with everyone) at end of the game.  It finishes the experience on a high.

If you want to speed up gameplay, I like to not use the paper cash money.  I keep track of my savings in a little box below the “Cashflow” box – and erase and adjust when I pass or land on the “Monthly Cash” square.

Game Criticism:

There’s cards in the deck called “Fortune Favours the Prepared Mind” – there’s 4 pairs of cards – 1 is an opportunity to act, the other the reward for taking action.  My recommendation:  Take the cards out of the game, they waste valuable game time, and you could enjoy your turn otherwise.

Get rubber bands to bind the card decks together.  The plastic moulding isn’t quite tall enough for some decks and I’ve had games where the cards spill everywhere if I tilt it at all.  Small thing, but it’s not fun to start off with a card spaghetti mess.

In the “Spiritual Man” deck, there’s references to all kinds of leaders and beliefs.  In the midst of lessons from Steve Jobs, Jim Rohn, Robert Kiyosaki and Martin Luther King Jr., you’ll find lessons from Native American Trackers, Christian Leaders, and Buddha.  Though some cards will mention “God” in them or the “Universe” – I didn’t find it a big deal that there were a couple religious spiritual references.  Some people might, but I just try to find the lesson – I’m open to learning the best from multiple sources.

Summary of the Rules

Here’s an Abundance Game instructional video that will explain the rules.  [Disclaimer – it’s 18 minutes long – bring some popcorn]

Have Fun!

You’ll love playing the Abundance Game.  It might seem a challenge at times carving out 2-3 hours to play it, but I promise you’ll have an enjoyable experience.  When I feel stuck in life, I’ll still wake up early, play the game on my own, and walk away content with much-needed “A-ha’s!”  Enjoy the game 🙂