🦒 A few weekends back, it was chilly and rainy (and dark by 5pm), so I snuggled up on my sofa with some delivery and started watching the Steven-Spielberg-produced series Life on Our Planet on Netlix.
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Morgan Freeman’s gentle narration laid out the Rules of Life, which of course reminded me of what it’s like in this everyday hustle of running a business.
It was all languid giraffe parades, cozy cub snuggles, and elephant ear tossing until it got real.
Really real.
He went on to present the three primary, yet most often forgotten, principles of life on our planet. The rules that determine our fate in both nature, and in business.
🌍 RULE ONE: Only the strongest survive.
This one needs little interpretation, because as you know, being an entrepreneur (or an employee!) means showing your value at all times in order to stay relevant.
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🌏 RULE TWO: Competition drives adaptation.
I love this one because at the heart of competition lies differentiation (one of the foundations of marketing and the very first order of business I get down to with my own clients).
Adaptation is nature’s way of taking that one thing that is truly unique, that is innovative and clever, and rewards it with a distinct advantage—survival (see rule 1).
This excites me because it reinforces a beautiful message of hope for anyone who struggles with being an original: the only way out of the samey-same tar pit of marketplace mediocrity is to simply stay calm and be yourself so you rise to the top (because flailing around in a panic does nothing to help you and might just make things worse!).
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🌎 RULE THREE: The earth is always changing.
You know nothing ever stays the same, right?
Change can happen suddenly like an asteroid blast, or slowly over time too like evolution. So imagine what might happen if you anticipated change and made a plan to get ahead of it?
Armed with the knowledge (we all have!) that this too shall pass, how might you become the greatest agent of change in your business?
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The show is worth a watch, even if you don’t have the lens of newsletter writing top of mind. 🥸
And as the end of the year approaches like a pride of lions chasing a gazelle, I find it hard not to reflect on the question: How do the Rules of Life apply to me? In my life and in my business?
How might they apply to you?
How can you ensure that you don’t just survive—but thrive!—for another year, another decade, another century if you really want to create a legacy?
Perseverance requires a mindset shift. But it’s one that can cause lasting positive change at the cellular level, similar to other subtle shifts like abundance thinking over scarcity, resilience, and resourcefulness.
“Professionals show up every day, test themselves no matter how they feel, and challenge themselves to persist in their endeavors, even if it means slowing down and waiting for the path to reveal itself.” – Sean Low (the godfather of business advice in my opinion 🙌) from his most recent BOH article entitled Business has slowed and I’m spiraling. How do I refill the pipeline?
Over the last year, I’ve written about several key change agents (from travel to time travel to creative leverage), and in each, I hope I’m helping my fellow creatives to evolve their thinking around marketing, their business, and their brands.
Because I know creatives are a different breed of beings. ✨
When others in the herd duck left, we go right.
Our will for survival is simply too strong to become somebody’s meal.
We’re too driven, we’ve worked too hard, we care too much. ♡
A little competition and change isn’t going to drive us to extinction.
So I’d love to know if you’d love to share….what’s your greatest change agent going to be next year?
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