What can Wordle teach us about business?
Have you played Wordle yet?
I can hear some people asking: What is Wordle?
Wordle is a simple game that invites players to guess a five-letter word each day.
After guessing, it tells you whether any of your letters are correct, and if they are in the right place.
You have six tries to get it right.
Even if you haven’t played it yet, you may have seen pictures of gray, yellow, and green boxes on social media.
Do you know what I like about Wordle?
It’s simple.
It’s fun.
And the story behind it makes me happy.
How it all began
Wordle was created by a Brooklyn-based software engineer named Josh Wardle. He created it for his partner, who loves word games.
He made it available on internet browsers, so anyone with an internet browser can play it – for free.
Last November, 90 people played.
Two months later, more than 300,000 people played.
And as the popularity of the free Wordle game began to grow, copycats saw an opportunity.
Though Wardle’s game is not an app, many believed it was, and began shopping for it on the App Store.
One copycat, Zach Shakked, saw an opportunity, and began selling ‘Wordle the app’ in the Apple app store last week.
After he received backlash on social media, he wrote that he had contacted the creator of Wordle (presumably Josh Wardle) and tried to convince him to partner on the app.
He also said he offered to pay a licensing fee or send a percentage of the profits to Wardle.
The deal, Shakked suggested, could have brought Wardle ‘millions.’
But Wardle declined.
He wanted his free game to be a free game.
When people attacked Shakked for copying Wardle’s idea and trying to make money from confused consumers, he responded that he was within his rights to do so.
It was just ‘business.’
It instantly made me think of one of my favorite pop culture quotes – from Jurassic Park.
Jeff Goldblum’s character was talking about science and dinosaurs, but the sentiment also applies to business:
When it comes to business, there are two things to consider:
What you can do (legally)
What you should do (ethically/morally).
Businesses spend a lot of time and money to determine what they can do.
But maybe business – and the world – would be better if we spent a bit more time asking what we should do.
On that note, another developer, Steven Cravotta, wrote last week that he had created an app called ‘Wordle’ five years ago.
It didn’t take off, and he stopped updating and promoting it.
But, with the popularity of Wardle’s version of Wordle, Cravotta saw a huge jump in downloads of the version he created five years ago.
Legally, Cravotta could have kept the money from the sale of his app.
But instead, he reached out to Wardle, and the two developers came up with another idea.
They decided to donate the proceeds to charity (Boost Oakland, a program that focuses on literacy for youth).
Said Cravotta:
“I figured we could turn this very strange, once in a lifetime scenario and make it something amazing!”
So the next time you have a tough business decision to make, think about Wordle – and Jurassic Park.
Don’t just think about what you can do.
Think about what you should do.
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Beth Collier helps make work better by improving leadership, communication, and workplace culture. She loves pop culture, kindness, and solving problems (from business problems to Wordle).
To find out how she can help you become a more confident, creative, and compelling leader or improve communication in your company, visit www.beth-collier.com or drop her a line at beth@beth-collier.com
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