Four Life Strategies From the Animal Kingdom

I grew up in Kenya, which is a great place to get an up-close lesson in some fundamental rules of life. Outside of the human communities in the region, there is an ongoing drama of survival playing out among the wild animals that populate the surrounding natural habitat. People spend a lot of money to go on safaris and see these animals in action. What they are seeing, I believe, are four basic survival strategies.

1. Be fast like the cheetah, so you can quickly chase down prey and escape predators.

2. Be strong like the elephant, so that smaller and weaker animals have to make way for you.

3. Be vigilant like the meerkat, so that you can quickly adapt behaviors to avoid risky situations.

4. Work together like the ants, so that you can benefit from interdependent effort.

As humans, our great strength is having the intelligence to observe and incorporate the lessons from all these strategies so that we can go beyond mere survival and flourish as individuals. To reach profound success in life, you need to embrace all these strategies at the right times.

You need to be fast. That doesn't mean rushing things and cutting corners, but it does mean being able to respond in a fast word where changes and challenges come at us all the time.

You need strength. Not stubbornness about there being only way to do things, but leadership strength, emotional and mental strength, economic strength—the kind of strength that is grounded in your values and inspires you to stake your place on your path and stick to your journey.

You need awareness of the risks around you. Not so that you can camouflage yourself and hide, but so you can navigate those risks with finesse and adaptability.

And of course, you need to be able to collaborate. This means having confidence in what you do alone while at the same time optimizing the contributions of others—team members, colleagues, mentors—so you can coordinate roles and get the most of everyone's knowledge and efforts.

These are all strategies that have been proven successful for countless creatures over countless generations. Master them all, and you can become a force of nature.