Cribbage: Count your Points

This past weekend my wife and I went out to our family cabin for the weekend. The best thing about the cabin is: No TV, No Cell Phone. Saturday night we looked at each other not sure what to do with ourselves and decided to play some cards. I suggested Cribbage. Only because, between the two of us, that was the only card game I could remember how to play.

Cribbage is a card game that goes way back where you get points for certain card combinations, especially any card combinations that add up to fifteen these are worth two points each. You also get points for pairs, straights etc… Like many games Cribbage has a particular set of rules and a certain game etiquette. One etiquette is how you count the points in your hand. As I was explaining how to count, Fifteen two, fifteen four, a pair for six and a run for 9, my wife started laughing and asked where the camera was. She really thought I was pulling a fast one on her. I explained that how you count your cards is a part of the game. And then I got to thinking “why is it you count the cards this particular way?”

It is a system, although this may seem obvious from the readers standpoint, how often are their things you do in your life that are a system that you don’t even realize. This begs the questions;

Is it a good system?

How do you know?

Did you come up with it on your own?

Did you learn it from someone else who has played the game before?

In respect to Cribbage it is a good system because people have been counting their cards in this order for probably hundreds of years. My grandfather taught me and he was taught by someone else. The people who have taught others how to play the game are mentors. Although at first the counting etiquette seemed ridiculous to my wife she soon found it is a very efficient system. Without this particular system you will invariably screw up your count.

In the game of crib if you don’t count all your points the other player gets to take any of the points you don’t take. In business your competitors take your points. Imagine that every point equals a thousand dollars. Without systems you might as well write your competitors a check every month.

The best systems for networking, marketing, sales, management and leadership have already been built for you. Yes, you may have to tweak these systems to fit your particular business. The hardest part about systems (speaking from my own experience here), is maintaining the discipline to follow them.