Some time ago I was watching a documentary about the Amazon rainforest.
Can’t remember what was the name of it, but I think it was on the Animal Planet or something like that.
Anyway, it was really eye opening.
I’m grabbing this data from wiki because there is no chance I would have remembered this when I watched it:
There are at least 40,000 plant species, 2,200 fishes, 1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378 reptiles living there. And add about 2.5 million insect species as a cherry on top.
*jaw drop*
It’s estimated that the Amazon rainforest is home to around 10-30% of species know to man.
And get this, the trees are so tightly packed that it can take 10 minutes for the rain to actually reach the ground.
Talk about competitive environment!
So you have animals (and plants) that adapted in various ways to survive in such environment.
Like limiting their diet so they don’t face competition for food. Toucans have long, narrow beaks to grab hard to reach fruit other birds can’t get to. Parrots have sturdy beaks to crack nuts and dig out hidden food. Leaf cutter ants carry leaves 50 times their weight from branches all the way to the ground where they, get this, bury them and eat fungus that grows from it.
Or you have animals that became masters of camouflage – jumping stick bug (looks like a damn branch!), jaguars, boas (or any other snake for that matter)…
Then you have things which are just straight badasses that you don’t wanna mess with. Bullet ants, whose sting is rated as the most painful one by the Schmidt pain index. You’ll feel horrifying pain for as long as 24 hours if you get stung by one of these bad boys. And they will even take on frogs if they get the chance. FROGS!
I don’t even have to talk about anacondas, bull sharks (yeah, they live in Amazon river too) and other guys that will happily eat you if they get the chance.
I could go on and on but can’t cover everything, there are millions of species in there!
But the amazing thing is how each of these animals adapted to the environment and developed their own uniqueness to survive.
Take note here, because this is the lesson of the day:
In a highly competitive environment, specialization means survival.
I repeat, specialization means survival.
It’s not different for any business out there.
If you are not big enough (which you can look as specialization by itself…no one messes with an elephant) – not specializing for specific market means you’ll get eaten alive by the competition who do.
Cheers,
Zoran
P.S. If you haven’t by now, you can check my customer avatar guide to help you figure out how to adapt in your jungle.
P.P.S. Save the trees, use emails!