When the game isn’t going in your favor, change the rules. Rules are man-made, they’re not divine. So change them.

PR and Advertising professionals have a saying they rely on from time to time: “If you don’t like what’s being said about you, change the conversation.” 

It’s that easy.  If you find yourself putting in vast amounts of work with no results it’s because you’re so focused on playing the game by other’s pre-existing rules that you don’t stop and even consider changing the rules to suit how you want to play the game. You don’t realize that many others might be tired of the old rules as well, and the promise of a new way of doing things can easily bring them to your side.

Humans are hard-wired to seek out change cyclically. The timing of the cycle has become nearly scientific, the hard part is figuring out which variables are the ones changing.

Create this new small pond where you can be the big fish. This might eventually become a big pond, or worst case scenario, you stay as the biggest fish in a small pond. It’s still way better than getting kicked around and being part of the lower-ranks of a big pond forever.

An effective way to increase your odds is to act first and act boldly. Neglecting this can be nearly catastrophic.

They say rules were meant to be broken, i say rules were meant to be re-written. If you’re the one initiating the writing you can skew the chances of winning in your favor.