Lessons from Nature on Success, Ideas, and Goals

There are various lessons that creative people and aspiring entrepreneurs learn from nature. One of the most significant is that animals have an instinct for success. From tiny insects to the giant blue whales, they all show certain unlearned behaviors that help them cope with the surrounding circumstances and adapt to survive.

Turtle hatchlings have to go through a journey of survival as soon as they see the world for the first time. If you have watched one of those videos describing it, you know how dangerous the trip of tiny turtles from the nest to the ocean is. However, they know their goal and keep going as far as they can.

Turtle hatchlings come out of the nests in hundreds. The little turtle never stops to look around and compare itself to its brothers and sisters and wonder who is faster and who is weaker. If it would do that, then it would waste time and lose sight of its main goal.

Moreover, just think about a rodent or a woodpecker born during the warm season. They have never experienced harsh winter, yet when fall arrives they start collecting acorns and other foodstuff and store them in hiding places as food resources for winter. They don’t take classes on 'How to become the most successful woodpecker in the forest'. They do it instinctively because their goal is one and clear as daylight, to survive winter.

On the other hand, migratory animals are another interesting example. When winter or drought seasons arrive they know they have to go somewhere else where finding shelter, food, and breeding grounds is easier. They set on a long journey without a compass or a guide to help them find their way. Those animals instinctively know that their goal is somewhere there and they navigate unknown paths and uncertainties until they finally recognize find what they are looking for and recognize their goal.

What lessons inexperienced entrepreneurs can learn from nature?

Having a clear goal in mind

First, having a well-defined goal can be the initial essential step to working towards it. Just think about it, differently from animal species, humans can have way more than just one goal. People can become serial entrepreneurs. They can approach one or more goals through constant efforts and existing knowledge and experience. Professor Günter Faltin says in his book Brains versus Capital: Just as you can learn to put a puzzle together faster and better, you get better at entrepreneurial design.

When the goal is clear one can navigate the way towards it without even thinking too much about how one got there, says author Maxwell Maltz.
Think about it this way. If you want a glass of water, you go and grab it. No one ever stops and wonders how exactly the human body is working to make the action happen. Because that’s a repeated action that also counts as experience. Thus if one would be asked to carry another object that’s heavier or a different shape from a glass of water, the person would use the same approach or some additional tool to move it. Experience can be used to reach a new goal that at first would seem difficult to navigate. Some processes come naturally.

Therefore, if you are already working towards your goal and then you start overthinking how to do it, or people make too many questions, remember this short poem known as the Centipede’s Dilemma by psychologist George Humphrey :

A centipede was happy – quite!
Until a toad in fun
Said, "Pray, which leg moves after which?"
This raised her doubts to such a pitch,
She fell exhausted in the ditch
Not knowing how to run.

Find your goal

Secondly, people working in creative fields are constantly worried about how are they going to come up with the next idea that’s really worth it. Italian professor and semiotician Umberto Eco used to say those good ideas are already there before you even think about them. As soon as you grab the pen or face the blank page ideas in one’s head start begging: Pick me, master, for I will be a great idea.

Of course that no one knows from the beginning the outcome of a certain idea, but while working on one can navigate unknown paths until one recognizes his goal. This also applies to entrepreneurs. There are millions of people, who want to do something but are aware neither of their final goal nor of the right path to take towards finding it. When they start working on their plans, they somehow figure out the way.

Also, it is important to remember that a lot of people can have the same idea for a product or service sooner or later. Regarding that, professor Faltin says: Successful companies originate in the mind. The better an entrepreneurial concept is and the more it is analyzed and fine-tuned, the more it will resemble a finished work of art and the more likely it is to be successful.

Always work to become your best version

Different from the turtle hatchlings people don’t start their journeys at the same level and circumstances. Not all have the opportunity to grow in thriving communities or workplaces. Thus, many people feel bad when comparing their achievements with others, even though their contexts can be completely different. In many cases, this leads to failure, and even though failure is considered an inseparable part of the entrepreneur’s journey, one needs a positive mindset to achieve success.

What we can propose to you is to start polishing your entrepreneurial skills with our training, thus you can have an equal start with those who already have an entrepreneurial education. The training will help you improve your idea concept in the ways it suits you best. Or you can learn how to find your goal. The Entrepreneurship Campus combines its training with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda. Just by looking at the SDGs, one can identify numerous issues that can be solved through innovative entrepreneurial solutions.

Afterward, you can test yourself by submitting your idea or project to the Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition. This way you can find out if you are cut to be an entrepreneur and also know yourself more and work on how to become your best version.

Read also: Benefits of Being a Young Entrepreneur

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