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This is a series of articles about studying general scientific ideas to
create a wealth building system that works according to the laws of the
Universe. These concepts come from observing our environment.
Scientists have discovered that the laws of nature follow certain
patterns. Some physical laws seem to be present everywhere, from the
tiny atoms to the enormous stars.
Everything on the physical realm tend to be influenced by these laws,
therefore they can be applied to your businesses too as you will see in
just a few minutes. The whole series contain the following articles . .
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1. Entropy
2. Life
3. Multiplication
4. Synergism
5. Inertia
6. Gravity
7. Diversification
I will explain on this article scientific concepts related to life and
how you can apply them to your business. Most living organisms possess
certain similar characteristics. By understanding these qualities you
can be more successful.
Let’s start by defining the purpose of life. Is there any specific
purpose or reason to be alive. Many people feel that their life is
meaningless. They think the endless cycle of life is pointless.
We wake up everyday and go to work, so we can get money, so we can buy
food, so we can raise kids, so they can grow up and go to work, so they
can have money, so they can buy food, so they . . . to infinitum. Is
there any specific reason behind this routine? What is the ultimate
purpose of being alive?
Let’s examine the life cycle of living organisms and let’s arrive to a
conclusion. Living things possess the following qualities . . .
1. Organization - They are comprised of one or more cells.
2. Metabolism - This is the process through which they create energy.
Living things are complex systems which need energy to maintain
internal organization.
3. Growth - They increase in size over time in all of their parts simultaneously.
4. Adaptation - They adapt to their environment. This process is fundamental for evolution.
5. Response to stimuli - They respond in many different ways to the stimuli from their environment.
6. Reproduction - This process refer to both the division of the cells
in organismal growth as well as the production of a new individual.
This alone tells us nothing, but if we analyze the behavior of most
living things we arrive to the conclusion that they have something in
common. They add value! Yes, you heard that right. Organisms add value,
to their own life, the environment (Earth/ecosystem) and the life of
others.
The reason we perceive that some living things subtract value (kill and
eat other organisms) is that we don’t live in a perfect ecosystem. I
believe though that most living things add more value than they
subtract from the environment, otherwise the ecosystem we live in
wouldn’t be able to sustain itself.
Now, think about it. In a perfect ecosystem life wouldn’t need to feed
on itself. This means that animals wouldn’t need to kill plants nor
other animals to survive. All animals would eat fruits, leaving the
plants alive to produce more fruits. Plants get their nutrients
directly from non-living things. So, the ecosystem would be able to
sustain itself without anybody having to suffer.
On our planet things seem to be different. It seems that life feeds on
itself here. Apparently the purpose of living things is to stay alive
and produce more individuals of their specie, to survive and evolve. If
you scrutinize this better you realize that the true purpose is to add
value. The purpose of life is to add value to other forms of life and
to the ecosystem (Earth).
Entropy is the universal tendency to chaos and disorder. Energy tends
to spread out in the Universe. All non-living things get more
disorganized and simpler over time. Now, living things are different.
They get energy from their environment to sustain and improve
(grow/evolve) their complex biological systems.
Organisms get energy from areas of low concentration and bring it into
areas of high concentration (their bodies). They act in direct
opposition to the law of entropy. So, in some way living things are an
obstruction to the second law of thermodynamics. There is something
about life that makes it behave in such a way. It is information. I am
talking about biological information here, the genes.
The genes are a set of special biological codes that make living things
behave the way they do. Something that also affect the behavior of an
organism is its environment. Some of the information that you will find
on the genes is the “instruction” to grow, expand, multiply and
reproduce.
Living things come programmed to behave in a certain way. We are
supposed to use our energy productively. We are meant to add value to
our lives, the life of others and the ecosystem. Organisms not always
know nor understand what is their true purpose in life, but they often
achieve it intuitively.
For example bees seek nectar everyday to make honey. They pollinate
some plants on the process. The same happens with many other birds and
insects. Their goal is to seek food and stay alive, but their true
purpose may be very different.
This is the pattern for most living things. Plants for example convert
Sunlight energy into chemical energy through the process of
photosynthesis. The chemical energy is then used by the plants to
produce sugars and other important nutrients. Plants do this to keep
themselves alive. They do not know what their true purpose is.
Many plants’ only purpose is to produce oxygen and serve as food to
other living things like animals. Some plants are very useful for
humans as well as other animals. They can be used as food, medicine,
wood, etc.
Many plants are genetically codified to produce fruits and reproduce
that way. Their goal is to reproduce. Their purpose is to feed other
animals with those fruits. When an animal comes to the plant, take the
fruit, eat it and throw the remains away, the goal of that animal is to
eat and stay alive, the purpose is to spread out the seeds of the plant
and sow new life somewhere else.
This happens instinctively in nature all the time. We have the ability
to reason though and we can understand this fact. In the example above,
neither organisms understand their true purpose. They focus on
attaining their goal. Your goal and your true purpose can be very
different though. Don’t forget this. Based on our observations, our
true purpose is to add value.
Now, the most important part of this article. How can we apply this
scientific knowledge to the business world? What does this general
principles about life has to do with business and wealth building?
Simple. Our goal is to make money, but our true purpose is to add
value. We humans can add value in many different ways. We have
conscience. The basic idea is to do something that improves the life of
others.
The best way to do this is to create something new that did not exist
before and which can be very useful to others. This new thing can be a
device, a machine, a system, anything; as long as it is innovative and
useful.
How can you measure how useful is the value you added? You can do this
by observing how many people get interested in it. The more useful it
is, the more people will want it and the more money you can make with
it. Innovation is very important in business for this reason, but you
can also add value without creating something new.
You can offer your services to others. You can fix broken stuff. Offer
your help and support, add value through your job, etc. It is important
that you understand this. We are not supposed to chase wealth. Just do
something that improves people’s lives and capitalize on your efforts.
Now, to finalize this article let’s apply the life cycle to your
business cycle. As you can see above, all living things have
organization, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response to stimuli and
reproduction. Believe it or not, most businesses if not all of them,
need these qualities too.
1. Organization - You need to be organized. You will notice how there
is always a tendency to chaos and disorder. You will need to exert some
efforts to keep the business running smoothly. Businesses are complex
systems. Constant input energy is required to maintain the internal
organization of any complex system.
You need to be organized if you want to be a successful business
person. This includes setting up goals and achieving them. It includes
planning, realizing projects and keeping the disorder under control.
2. Metabolism - Metabolism is something else you will need. Businesses
use raw materials from the environment. Business people use energy,
their own energy, other people’s efforts, financial resources, etc; to
run their businesses. Some energy will be converted into useful work
within the system that is your business. The more effective you are at
it, the better results you will obtain.
3. Growth - Businesses are supposed to grow too. Everyday you can learn
something new from the marketplace (your environment). Over a period of
time you and your organization can grow and increase in value and size.
Organize your business in such a way that it can grow a little bit more
every day.
4. Adaptation - This has to do with surviving and evolution. If you can
adapt quickly to fast changes on the environment you will have an
advantage over other businesses which for one reason or another can’t
do this. Successful business people adapt to changes easily. They keep
their goal in sight: to make money. They change the method as many time
as necessary. They persevere on the goal not on the method.
5. Response to stimuli - This one has to do with feedback. What is
people telling you with their reactions, choices, attitudes, etc. What
are the results of your efforts. Negative feedback is as important as
positive one as long as it makes sense.
If you can analyze the information that you receive from the
environment and change based on it, you will be responding to the
stimuli you receive. Your overall result will depend on your response
(your choices).
6. Reproduction - At last you may want to reproduce too. This involves
starting other businesses or getting different streams of income from
the business you already have. Business people know this. They prefer
to have different sources of revenue, so if one dries up they still
have the others to back up that temporary trouble.
These are just very basic examples of how you can apply scientific laws
to your businesses and become more profitable. On this article I shared
information with you about life, its purpose and its cycles. You can
learn about other physical laws and their applications to wealth
building techniques from my other articles.
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