The History of the Game of Thrive

As a health promotion nurse working in a secondary college, I was looking for different and fun ways to promote health and well-being to young people. The game has been designed to simulate life choices in an environment where players can set goals, test their choices and actions and then experience the consequences.

The inspiration to create “THRIVE” came from Robert Kyosaki, a very wealthy man who learned real estate investment skills playing "Monopoly". Robert Kyosaki saw the potential of games as a means of learning and designed a game called “Cashflow” to teach wealth creation skills.

It is the belief of the author that playing the game ‘Thrive’ promotes basic success principles including; dream building, goal setting and cause and effect disciplines. ‘THRIVE’ can positively impact on people wishing to learn, grow and progress in life.

How it came about.

Many people have asked me “Why did you invent the game of Thrive?”

As a nurse with over thirty years experience, I had come to realize that many people are unwell and not living to their full potential because of an imbalance between a healthy lifestyle and the evidence of negative attitudes, poor social skills and lack of a strong spiritual foundation of values. Much of the imbalance many people have originates in childhood and adolescence. Poor self esteem leads to harmful activities such as substance misuse, negative self image etc. This flows onto difficulties in communication and poor relationship skills. The combination of all these factors then impacts on physical health. Another thing I noted with many people was that they lacked purpose, dreams and goals in their lives.

In 2000 the Victorian Government initiated a program of placing nurses in secondary colleges to address many of these issues in prevention and harm minimization programs. This position really excited me and I was successful in securing one of those positions.

One of the challenges of this position was finding new and interesting ways to engage adolescents in developing healthier lifestyles for themselves.

Board Games as Educational Tools

About the time I was applying for the Secondary School Nurse position, I was reading some books written by Robert Kyosaki, the author of the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad” series. Today Robert Kyosaki is a wealthy man from real estate investment. He states that he developed a love for real estate investment and many of the skills of real estate investment playing Monopoly as a child. Today Robert Kyosaki teaches financial literacy with the aid of a board game he designed called Cashflow.

One evening while doing some ironing and reflecting on the book I had been reading, the idea struck me. “If Robert Kyosaki learned so much from a board game and now teaches via a board game, why not have a health, personal development board game as a fun teaching tool?” That was in February 2001.

Thrive comes alive

Over the next ten months, I prayed a lot about the idea and read many self development books. I also researched several personal development programs that were available for school students and worked with the principles set out in those programs. Many of the basic values and philosophies were from You Can do it/Program Achieve. Program Achieve works on the four pillars of Confidence, Persistence, Organisaton and Getting Along Skills.

On Australia Day in 2002, I started drawing out the game on a sheet of cardboard. The Action and Choice Cards were written and the idea of goal setting was incorporated to give each player a personal focus and create meaning for the game. This task was completed by Easter 2002.

Our daughter Sarah has illustrated the board and designed the logo. It took Sarah about 3 weeks to complete the illustrations. I asked friend, Alan Tilson if we could use his scanner. He then said he had the programs and time to design the whole board and its components. What a God send Alan has been. He has spent hundreds of hours refining the game and laying it out ready for a printer. By August 2002, there was a copy available for trials. This edition was designed for twelve years and above.

In January 2003 a modified version was created suitable for ages 7-12. (This edition is not yet in print, however a conversion kit is available to enable whole family’s to play together)

Trials commenced in May 2002. Some very minor adjustments were made. The greatest hold up again was the printing of the game. It was not until June 2004 that a suitable printer was found in New Zealand. The first consignment was delivered in February 2005.

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