The Infinite Game

Simon Sinek’s The Infinite Game is a book that challenges how we define success, leadership, and longevity. Sinek’s argument is simple but profound - most people play business like it’s football, with clear rules, opponents, and a final whistle. But culture, and the companies that sustain it, don’t work that way. They’re infinite games. There’s no end, no trophy, no scoreboard that says “you’ve won.” There’s only the question: are we still in the game?

That’s how I’ve always seen Defected, and my role in the organisation. It’s premature for me to say this at 45, but right now I can’t ever see myself retiring because I am lucky to do what I love and love what I do and to be frank, enjoy working more than not. From the outside, people might see Defected as a record label or as an events business - releases, charts, festivals, merchandise - but to me it’s always been something deeper: a living, breathing ecosystem built around House Music culture. House isn’t a finite pursuit. It’s a belief system. It’s about connection, community, and freedom. It doesn’t end when the lights go out; it evolves, it reinvents itself, it passes between generations. My job as CEO & co-owner, the job of everyone who’s ever worked at Defected, to the incumbent and to my partners has always been to keep the game alive, to protect, celebrate, and modernise that culture so it continues to matter (as it does).

Reading Sinek again off the back of the Summer, ahead of planning the next stage of evolution & strategy at Defected has given the idea new weight. As CEO, you often have to think in finite terms - forecasts, budgets, sales, tickets, streams. There’s a rhythm to those things: they rise, they fall, they reset each quarter. But as I evolve I often remind myself to keep sight on the longer horizon, to measure success by the legacy we build. The infinite mindset asks harder questions: Are we advancing a Just Cause that outlives us? Are our people trusted and empowered? Are we brave enough to adapt when the landscape shifts?

Evolution or specifically change is sometimes misunderstood and misconstrued, but right now we must focus on all of these things: advance the Just Cause, empower the leaders and be brave enough to adapt.

Defected has survived, and thrived, for nearly 27 years because we’ve stayed infinite at heart. When trends came and went, when clubs closed, when partners went out of business, when the business changed shape, we adapted. Not to chase the next high, but to stay true to why we exist. Our “why” has never been about the biggest hits or events; it’s been about owning our integrity, our taste, our values. That’s the Just Cause. That’s what keeps artists, fans, and our team aligned even when the world outside is noisy.

The infinite game is uncomfortable, it forces you to zoom out when everyone else is zooming in which sometimes feels unusual. It means making decisions that might not pay off next quarter but will matter next year, in five years, in ten years. It means letting go of comparison, ignoring ego or “winning,” and instead asking: what are we building that lasts?

Defected isn’t a player in someone else’s game, it’s an ecosystem that keeps writing its own rules. And as I move from years of running the day-to-day to continuing to evolve myself in shaping the future, that’s the mindset I want to protect above all: one that plays not to win, but to endure. My Mum will tell you, that’s always been my way.

Because in an infinite game, the only way to lose is to stop playing. And I love the game way too much to stop playing.