CEOs That Love Playing Games
CEOs That Love Playing Games
Games were once seen as an activity that kept people from doing more important things, whether it be working, exercising or studying. This stereotype has slowly gone away though as larger proportions of the population have begun playing them and large esports competitions have emerged, generating billions in revenue each year.
Additionally, many successful business people are also known to be avid gamers, putting this perception to rest.
Despite The Social Network film suggesting that Facebook's founder and CEO is unwavering in his single-track focus on his work, he actually is a lover of gaming. Before building Facebook, Zuckerberg used to program his own video games.
His company also bought VR headset manufacturer, Oculus, so he likely spends plenty of time "testing" out the latest equipment.
It's unlikely that you won't have been sent a link to a SurveyMonkey questionnaire at some point in the last few years, so you will have probably heard of it.
If you haven't, SurveyMonkey is a platform that allows its customers to create online polls and surveys. It's used by everyone from university students to large businesses to collect data and produce reports to gain helpful insights.
The company's CEO, Dave Goldberg is an avid poker player. He's taken part in a string of large poker tournaments and has become a skilled player.
Some argue that playing poker can make you a better business person, as it helps you to better assess risk and provides cognitive benefits since you must remember the different poker hand rankings while you play. In fact, Geoff Woo, who is one of the co-founders of Nootrobox, described poker as a "perfect microcosm for business".
Elon Musk and Larry Page are royalty of Silicon Valley, having both been involved in multiple successful tech ventures. Despite being busy with the world's biggest search engine, a space company and the manufacturer of electric cars, Musk and Page regularly get together to play video games.
Musk stays over at Page's house and they play video games while coming up with new ideas for crazy business ventures. His favorite titles include Overwatch, BioShock, Fallout, Mass Effect and Saint's Row.
Pranshu Gupta, who is the CEO of Indian vehicle tracking device manufacturer Trak N Tell, loves playing video games as it's an opportunity for him to combine his passions.
His favorite game is Need for Speed, which he still plays on his Xbox. He enjoys driving virtual cars as fast as possible and crashing into things without any consequences. This is a far cry from his business, which produces vehicle tracking equipment that's designed to keep people safe.
He first got into gaming on an old PC with an old 80286 processor that was connected to a monochrome monitor. It didn't matter though, even with poor graphics, it was fun for him.
Min-Liang Tan is a successful entrepreneur from Singapore. He is perhaps the best example of how video games can contribute to business, as he turned his passion into a global success.
Tan loves video games so much that he started a business that builds gaming hardware. His business has a net worth of around $1.5 billion and has achieved this success by creating products "for gamers, by gamers".
It builds peripherals for smartphones, like cases that disperse the heat generated from long gaming sessions, noise-cancelling headphones, powerful gaming computers and market-leading mechanical keyboards.
Those looking to get a job there must talk about their favorite games and then spend time playing them to show they are passionate.
As for Tan himself, despite being 42, he still lives with his parents. He says he likes this as it gives him more time to play video games. Some of his favorites are classic titles like Quake, Civilization and Ultima IV.
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