Somewhere in the deep blue ocean, off the coast of the Niger Delta area of Nigeria, where oil drilling activity was taking place, I noticed the lesson of nature that describes cooperation as an important ingredient for success. It began with the cacophony of dozens of seabirds swarming over a portion of a calm and quiet ocean, suggesting that something was probably going on below the surface. As if to confirm my thought, bubbles suddenly appeared, gradually forming a continuous set of colorless rings. He was still trying to discern what was in the bubbles of water that excited dozens of seabirds when, moments later, two huge dark whales appeared amid rings of clear water from the ocean depths with their mouths open. On the surface, they closed their massive jaws, sprung up, and dove for a repeat performance.
You might remember a documentary I read a few years ago in Awake magazine about how whales cooperate in order to feed successfully. It is likely that these two whales worked as a team to feed on the tiny sea creatures (shrimp, krill, and small fish) that were floating around the drilling rig due to the crushed food that is normally thrown overboard into the waters.
According to the documentary, the whales, once they spot their prey (usually crustaceans), team-dive below it and swim in tight circles while releasing air through their blowholes. These clever maneuvers form a bubble net vertically through the middle of their web, making it easier for them to feast on their prey. Seabirds with their keen eyesight were able to detect this process early enough for them to arrive and wait to finally join the feast.
Naturally, achieving success is more like staying alive. It’s as much about bonding with your good friends, neighbors, spouse, and relatives as it is about growing and reproducing.
The woman and the man need to agree and accept each other in order to live together as husband and wife, and they must cooperate with each other in love to unite and form (reproduce) a family. Nature’s Creator had already established these natural models to demonstrate why cooperation is vital to our success. No man or organism is an island; each have a relationship to each other, either directly or indirectly.
The success web is truly a web of interconnected and interdependent activities that people make possible through cooperation. However, unlike other organisms, the human being must seek success through symbiotic cooperation where an atmosphere of peace and trust is created. Said cooperation and alliances are essential for the further development of each system and the final success of each participant.
History has shown that people who recklessly and irresponsibly jump into every idea that crosses their minds, whether business or personal, without stopping to test such ideas and seeking other people’s opinions, are doomed to fail.
Whether in business or in other activities of life, we need the cooperation of others to be successful. It is an established fact that we can make our business empire more relevant and successful by transforming it from a one-man business to a corporate organization with additional members. The Bible speaks of ‘two are better than one, because when one falls, there is another standing to lend a hand’. According to Robert Schuller in his classic best-seller “Hard times never last, but tough people do”, the secret to success is to find a need and fill it. Finding these needs and satisfying them at the same time can be made faster and easier if we seek the opinion of the second person. No man has total control over knowledge.
The cooperation that makes a person successfully survive and prosper must be mutual and commensal. The best principle of a successful cooperation is the partnership for propagation, where each participant benefits without harming each other.
Take the case of the bee when it lands on a flower, it enters into a symbiotic association with its host. The bee receives nectar and pollen from other flowers of the same type. This alliance allows flowering plants to reproduce successfully. After being pollinated, the flowers stopped producing food for bees and other insects by losing their scent, dropping their petals, or changing their orientation or color. To us this may seem naughty, but it is said to be a courtesy to the bee and other insects who can now focus their efforts on other plants that are still open for business.
Ants are also a perfect model of healthy cooperation, industry, and order, often working together to haul home objects larger than themselves or help injured or exhausted members of the colony return to their nest.
In all these accounts, it is worth noting that business cooperation should be conceived with people of positive mind, optimism, desire, dedication and determination. It is essential to take into account the benefits of such cooperation for others, especially consumers or end users. This is where and how true success can be achieved and sustained through cooperation.