Business like nature is survival of the fittest

There’s an old African Proverb that I cannot remember word for word so I will paraphrase it:

“All the gazelle has to do is outrun the fastest lion.  All the lion has to do is outrun the slowest gazelle.”

Now let me break this down for you in a business sense.  Business owners are the gazelles, and Failure is the lion.  That means that as a business owner you have to constantly strive to be ahead of the game.  You have to use your common sense and not wait for someone else to do it for you.

The truly fast gazelles are constantly learning and applying what they learn because the fast gazelle understands that being at the back of the pack means they feel the breath of a hungry lion on their rear end and sooner or later they will feel teeth sinking into their butt.

The slow Gazelle has a different mindset.  They are not thinking about the fact that they have to outrun the fastest lion, they are thinking that they can depend on one of the gazelles being slower than them.  Sooner or later they will BE the slow gazelle.

So what does this mean to a business owner? Well lets take a look at how you interact on APSense or any other network for that matter:

Do you take the time to learn the rules of the network?

Do you come on like gangbusters spamming every member in site?

Do you use the provided tools effectively or treat them like just another place to dump an ad?

Do you build relationships and share knowledge with others?

Are you establishing yourself as a respected member?

How you answer those questions will let you know which type of gazelle you are; a fast one destined to survive another day or a slow one destined to end up on the menu.

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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Selya Rollins   Creative Imagery So true Cheryl, people have to be prepared to work at building their business, with focus and consistency. Jun 21st 2011 17:45

Cheryl Baumgartner   Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance @Selya I see so many slow gazelles around the internet it's not funny. And they all believe there is a gazelle slower than they are. @Gwendolyn I thought the first one was good for showing the fast gazelle, the last one shows Gazelle on the dinner menu. I'm hoping the visual makes it click for people.! Jun 21st 2011 19:07

Joseph Botelho   Investing One Gram at a Time This truly is an amazing well written article..........makes wonderful but perfect sense to me, from a business stand point............your ABSOLUTELY RIGHT...the examples you used hit the nail on the head at least for me it did.. Great Job Cheryl.. :} Jun 21st 2011 20:28

Cheryl Baumgartner   Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance Joseph I look at the majority of members registered on this site and they do not interact, do not take the time to use the brain that they were given. In the ASK section in Big bold letters it clearly says two things: 1. Search to see if your question has been asked and 2. Do not post ads as questions. Both of these things are simple to understand and that same statement is on every page. Yet day in and day out the same questions, the constant links the blatant spam. Do these people honestly expect anyone to consider them actual business owner serious about building a business? I mean if you cannot comprehend straight forward instructions and follow them, how do you think anyone will expect that you can grasp the intricacies of running a business? These are the slow gazelles. Even a wildebeast can outrun them! Jun 21st 2011 20:41

Philippe Moisan   Tutorial videos, sci-fi writer There is ONE big difference between humans and gazelles. We can work in teams to fight the lions successfully. LOL That helps the less fit to adjust and also get a piece of the pie, provided they participate with their best efforts if they are less talented. :) Jun 23rd 2011 20:32

Cheryl Baumgartner   Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance The big difference between humans and gazelles is that gazelles understand the concept of survival of the fittest. The gazelle understands that one of them is going to have to feed the lion. Humans don't grasp this fact, and they are so busy trying to save the weak one that they all end up getting eaten. Just look at the educational system sometime. No child left behind sounds good, the problem in that thought is that if none gets left behind, none get ahead because they are all being urged toward the same pitiful low standards set for the dumbest child in the class. Jun 23rd 2011 20:55

Philippe Moisan   Tutorial videos, sci-fi writer The educational system is made to make children fit in society. I think it's impossible to have it respect every children's needs. That's the job of the parents to fill in the blanks. Saying the educational system is a failure is overgeneralization. I'm not saying it can't be improved. However, so many people want money from the gov for their own needs, it's easy to forget the future generations, to simply say "We'll take care of it later, when we have time/money/ideas/resources" Jun 23rd 2011 21:05

Cheryl Baumgartner   Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance It's not over generalization. The educational system has overgeneralized itself through mainstreaming and standardized testing. Children are no longer separated into groups allowed to learn at their own speed. The gifted child is put int he same class with the learning impaired child. The gifted child instead of being able to progress at the advanced pace best suited for him is now held back to the pace of the learning disabled child. The gifted child is now bored so that boredom manifests itself through 'acting out' in class. The gifted child is crippled educationally. And sorry but it is not the job of the educational system to 'make children fit in society'. That is indoctrination, not education. It is the job of the educational system to impart the skills needed to be a functioning contributing member of society whose skills improve society. Jun 23rd 2011 22:20