Learning from the life of a Virus!

While the majority of human beings would look at big things to learn from … big businessmen, big organizations, big players, big celebrities ..etc, we always forget that some of the greatest wisdom and lessons in life are learnt from small creatures .. those tiny little creatures that live along in life and share that universe .. Those have a lot to teach us .. the million times larger creatures ..

So what can we learn from the life of a virus? .. Three main key lessons:

1. Small is huge!

Unlike the majority of human beings in life, who are competing for “more” size in almost everything, … more money, more power, more relationships ..etc, a virus remains one of the smallest ever living things discovered by human beings. The picture above displays how huge is the device required to see the virus (electronic microscope) , and the relative size is shown in the chart below:

So basically this extremely unseen living thing has grabbed the attention of millions of people, not through size, but through impact.. and here is lesson one!

Many human beings today compete to work in the largest company, love to buy and wear big brands, love to grow their business in size, speak day and night about growth in revenue, size, profit ..etc, but how about impact?

It doesn’t matter how big you are , or how many branches your business cover, but it only matters how impactful you, or your business are.. If you create impact, and your business has only one branch, clients will come to you from all over the world .. Wish to challenge this? How many branches does Harvard School of business has? Stanford? NASA? Space-X?

A virus is super small, but the impact is massive on much larger creatures …

2. Integrate

So many individuals today want to achieve everything, and be everyone .. Look at businesses, and how they try to copy each other .. Look at the competition and how people like to have all attributes for business segments covered .. The lack of clear identity is probably one of the most dangerous enemies of doing business today ..

Before business people try to apply new ideas, new systems or approach new market segments, integration of the existing systems, ideas and market segments is actually more important .. Look inside first and try to make your own systems work together in harmony before you think of expanding ..

Remembering that strength always comes from within, no matter how big or small you are is what most of us need to learn today, and this constitutes lesson 2.

3. Mutate!

While a great number of books and articles speak about change management, the ideal lessons on change can be actually learnt from viruses! .. For thousands of years viruses have been surviving through mutation, and not just change .. So what’s the difference?

Look at the chart above and reflect .. the virus mutation is built on continuous selection, and that’s the key difference with the normal change process, as normal change processes will look into 3 key steps: Unlocking the current situation, changing, then locking the new situation .. Viruses don’t do this, but they continuously keep changing and they don’t reach the stage of “locking the new status”, or the “Freeze” status that Lewin has described in his change management model.

So lesson 3: Have a milestone of evaluation in your life, maybe every year end or whenever you feel significant, and then choose what you need to “deselect” in your life, and what you need to newly select .. Keep doing this and never surrender to the comfort zone, or years of age or experience .. Mutation kept viruses alive for millions of years, despite all the attempts to end their lives .. they are outsmarting human beings until today, and they are examples of fast change, adoption and growth..

Today the world is just too complex, with millions of people moving in clans and adopting the herd mentality .. Pause and reflect .. think of your strengths from within, don’t get intimidated by others around you growing in size, money, power..etc, think about your own edge, what makes you stronger and the reason you, personally, exist .. There is massive power inside you, only if you decide to use it to your own success .. Measure your success by the impact you create, and use your own measures for this, not the ones others have created to themselves .. Keep changing, but keep your internal values as solid as a rock .. Your identity should never be affected by the changes you make to survive .. Viruses have always been viruses, and will always be, no matter how many millions of changes they will make, and so do you ..

Be small but impactful,… be small but solid,… be small but genuine,… be small but happy!

Written by:

Engagement Expert, International Speaker & Pragmatic researcher