Charles Darwin wrote about “survival of the fittest”, but within a specific context. He later emphasized “most adaptable”. Jonas Salk added “survival of the wisest”. Survival is of concern to most of us, especially today, but what is the real formula: fittest, most adaptable, or wisest? These are all quite different. Choosing the right one is truly important, but do you know why?
Do you feel that our world has become overwhelmingly complex? Impossible to understand, increasingly difficult to cope with? Each day, it seems to get worse. Can this go on forever, or will it eventually reach a terminal point? If so, what might this point look like, and how might we struggle our way through it?
Big things are definitely happening today, even if they have not yet managed to reach broadly catastrophic dimensions. What we are clearly facing, almost certainly, is a set of major threats to our business and organizational survival. These threats are largely or completely unforeseeable in nature, magnitude, and timing. You can’t realistically “prep” for these: You can only tackle your survivability.
These questions may seem completely unrelated, but they are not. Together, they address two of the most important processes that are shaping our world today. Money is essential to civilized life. But it is a concept, not a real thing. And, despite so much apparent disagreement around lately, the underlying agreement is far greater than you might imagine. How so?
