The History of the World's Greatest (Entrepredator) Entrepreneurs: October 2010

The Greatest Success Story Ever

Definition of Evolutionary Entrepreneurship:

“Just as specie’s evolution is rewarded or penalised by an environment, the same dynamic accounts for the success of great/successful entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur's likelihood of success follows the same precepts of a successful species' - fortuitously better ‘biologically’ adapted (and/or skilled) and/or circumstantially placed to take advantage of his or her local changing environment in a struggle for success. Thus the successful entrepreneurs appears often to be (like a successful species) fortuitously ‘Suited’ to the landscape in which great opportunity is being offered. All things being equal when such conditions are met nature will assist in improving the ‘probability’ of an entrepreneur’s(entrepredator’s) chances of rising successfully as naturally as it does yeast in an oven.” Ron Shillingford

About seventy five thousand years ago an apocalyptic event took place, one that would change the course of human destiny forever. On the island of Sumatra in Indonesia a super volcano (mount Toba) erupted spewing out over two hundred cubic miles of ash. It was enough to block out the sun. The falling ash created a 15cm layer over the entire Indian subcontinent and was six metres deep in places. Temperatures fell by 30% and rain by 90%. It was a complete environmental collapse.

But this was only the beginning of the apocalypse. So far the affects were local to the eruption. Along with the ash, the eruption blasted out enormous quantities sulphuric dioxide which converted to sulphuric acid high up in the atmosphere. From near and far acid rain clouds formed and hung over the earth. The droplets from the clouds blocked out 90% of sunlight causing a six year long global volcanic winter. With very little sunlight available and temperatures down by 30 degrees centigrade, much of the forests disappeared, vegetation destroyed and with it the food chain it supported.

Humans were on top of that food chain and soon everyone was dead, everyone accept a few thousand men, women and children from the African Rift Valley region, possibly only a few hundred. Their rapidly deteriorating landscape would have held little hope for its inhabitants. Humanity was on the brink of extinction. Mass exodus would have seemed a way out. But this would mean entering the unknown. We can only imagine these circumstances but from such situations leaders emerge. Men or women endowed with a sense of daring. Or maybe they lacked the fear that would normally overtake an ordinary person. Their age, status or family (or lack of family) circumstances may have influenced their desire to leave. Either, way it’s the characteristics that would thrust these suitable individuals forward to fulfil their destiny. Unbeknown to them these individuals also had the destiny of mankind in their hands.

To these leaders we should be eternally grateful. These pioneers were east Africans migrants and we are their descendents. They became pioneers driven by circumstances, led by men and women with an indomitable spirit, a spirit that took them on an ‘out of Africa’ venture’. This venture would become the greatest venture of all time. The migrant’s decedents would eventually populate the whole world. This means everyone you can see around you is a distant relative, an actual blood relative and quite literally a member of the human family.

The African migrants who left realised things had changed radically and sought a new promise land. They were more fortunate than most. Probably got lucky. Their environment must have permitted them the time and opportunity to leave. It’s thought they escaped via the southern end of the Red Sea, where an isthmus 25 kilometres wide, providing a gangplank from the coast of Somalia to the coast of Yemen, ironically known as the Gates of Grief (Bab al Mandab).

This is how David Brown writing for The Washington Post described what he imagined happen next “People adapted to what they encountered the way all living organisms do: through natural selection. A small fraction of the mutations constantly creeping into our genes happened by chance to prove beneficial in the new circumstances outside the African homeland. Those included differences in climate, altitude, latitude, food availability, parasites, infectious diseases and lots of other things. A person who carried, by chance, a helpful mutation was more likely to survive and procreate than someone without it. The person’s offspring would then probably be endowed with the same beneficial mutation. Over thousands of generations, the new variant (what geneticists call the “derived allele”) could go from being rare to being common as its carriers fared better than their brethren and contributed more descendants to the population. Scientists have long known that regardless of ancestral home or ethnic group, everyone's genes are pretty much alike. We’re all Homo sapiens. Everything else is pretty much details.”

Our migrant African ancestors represent a genetic bottleneck. There’s only a one-tenth of one percent difference in our DNA no matter who we are or where we are from. There is less diversity in any two humans from around the world than in a single troop of chimps and more genetic diversity between neighbours in one village in the African Rift Valley than between a person from South East Asia and a Northern European. Our very diverse visual appearances demonstrate how minor variations in our DNA can cause major changes in appearance, performance even our feelings about each other and ourselves. The mutation for ‘white’ skin, discovered in 2005, involved just one letter of DNA code. That is, 1 out of 3.1 billion letters. The ramification of this random change in hosts was off the chart. The politics of race and colour have affected the world beyond measure and led to instances where white genes for example have sought to obliterate non-white genes through genocide.

The new environments sought and found by the migrants produced new winners and losers. Through the mutation of genes housed in the migrant’s bodies peculiarities; features, characteristics, traits, phenotypes and so forth, appeared within individuals that made some better suited to the new environment than others. From here we take the journey from a ‘gene eye level’ perspective. So as these gene-hosts (Homo sapiens) made their way along the cost they began to branch off. Some of the earliest branches are now found among the suitably named aborigines of Australia who arrived there via India some 50,000 years ago. This branch represents some 10% of the world’s population. Another wave brought a branch that accounts for the other 90% and they moved north into the middle east and up into Asia 40,000 years ago eventually travelling into Europe and ultimately America around 10,000 – 15,000 years ago.

A chance event such as a drop in global temperatures produced fleeting opportunities. Air moisture was now being captured by the ice. The change caused the migrant genes to continue driving forward -hosts across the land bridge, Beringia, which was exposed due to the reduction in air moisture, lowering sea levels. The genes drove forward induced by the of pleasure sensation of eating, followed the Woolly Mammoth into North America ending the final chapter in the great ‘out of Africa venture’ when man completed the colonising of the entire inhabitable earth.

The world is filled with haves and have nots. Jarred Diamond is scientist of international repute. He’s a biologist and specialist in human physiology. His book Gun Germs and Steel outlines his quest to find out why some races are among the haves and some are among the have nots. Diamond makes it clear it had much to do with geographic luck (later this will be paralleled with economic geographic luck). Take for instance the access to nutritious grasses like wheat and barley in the Fertile Crescent. This led to farming right along the east/west axis area through Eurasia. This path of farming was because of the common axis creating similar day lengths, climates, and therefore, supports the same natural life, making the axis a conduit for farming opportunity. Anyone along the axis had a great opportunity to benefit from farming. Those outside the axis had less opportunity.

The domestication of native cows allowed and preceded domestication of wild wheat and barley. The use of animal labour helped to make able to reach a critical point in productivity re energy (calories) spend (labour) versus energy produced (food). In northern Europe farming’s sudden acceleration corresponded with a mutation in a gene that allowed the efficient digestion of milk sugars occurring around 7,500 years ago. This mutant gene (and its host) had a great advantage over its rivals. It could now benefit from a food source intended by the genes of cattle to be a provisioned for itself housed in calves. The milk of course provided the fortifying vitamin D. In low sunlit areas this was a great supplement and led to acceleration in population growth (a sure sign of genetic success).

This blog is about the seventy-five thousand year old genes housed in the bodies of African migrants (gene-host) from a ‘gene-centric entrepreneurial perspective’. It is about how those genes continue an ever onward march successfully venturing out of Africa to conquer and colonise the world. It’s also how these genes simply keep going forward becoming more and more specialist not only at the macro level of producing successful species and so-called races. At a micro or individual host level produce successes who heterogeneously, or simply put, for a multitude of reasons, found themselves in ‘fortuitously’ changing times and changing environments, so well suited to their genetic peculiarities and or social circumstances, lead to amazing entrepreneurial feats and success.

Malcolm Gladwell cites the Colorado Adoption Project in his book Tipping Point. The Colorado Adoption Project is run by Institute for Behavioural Genetics. IBG is research unit that conducts research on the genetic and environmental as a base of individual differences in behaviour. As expressed on the website of Colorado Adoption Study it’s one of the longest running studies of its kind. The purpose of the CAP is to study both nature and nurture, to determine the genetic predispositions as well as the environmental influences that contribute to traits such as intelligence, personality, and behaviour. In order to do this a wide range of interviews have been conducted with participating families. Gladwell, with the supporting evidence from CAP states “geneticists has shown that most of the character traits that make us who we are – friendliness, extroversion, nervousness, openness and so on – are about half determined by genes and half by our environment.” This supports the idea that our genes and environment has an affect on determining who we are. And it is this ‘conspiring’ between our genes and environment that produce this probalistic character of our chances of ‘success.’

The importance of being born at the right time is a point I make in the revised edition of my book, The Road Ahead… My friend Warren Buffett, who’s often called the world’s greatest investor, talks about how grateful he is to live at a time when his particular talents are valuable.” Bill Gates

Another close friend of Buffett, David Gottesman, said during an interview “[Buffett] is very good at understanding what works for him, whether he’s taking about stocks or talking

As highlighted earlier, timing is critical in an entrepredator’s fortunes. In North America, during the Pleistocene epoch (that ended around 10,000 years ago) megafauna or large mammals, disappeared (during the latter stage of the epoch). This correlates with the appearance of man (an apex predator) in the region. Smilodon’s (Sabre toothed Tiger) extinction correlates with a man’s arrival. Ten thousand years or so later in North America, another epoch began, but this was a commercial one. The epoch correlates with the appearance of another predator. The new environment was as sponsored by the animal spirits and herd instincts of investors and corresponds with the arrival of the entrepredator species called - the Arbitrageur. Knowledgerush.com define Arbitrageur as …the practice of taking advantage of a state of imbalance between two (or possibly more) markets… Warren Buffett is a member of this ‘species.’ His phenotype was Suit Able to the landscape, he was lucky enough to be born into. Bill Gates highlighted the point saying “Warren says if he’d been born a few thousand years ago, he’d probably have been some animal’s lunch. But he was born into an age that has a stock market and rewards Warren for his unique understanding of the market”

On page 62 of Outliers Gladwell lists fourteen entrepreneurs, five of which I featured in my previous book This extract from Outliers addresses the same point directly. Gladwell highlights the reason for why fourteen of the seventy –five (or 20%) of those he list as the world’s richest people in history were born between 1830 and 1840. This time frame suggested momentous change was taking place in and around this time as highlighted earlier. He writes “In the 1860’s and 1870’s, the American economy went through perhaps the greatest transformation in its history. This was when the railroads were being built and when Wall Street emerged. It was when industrial manufacturing started in earnest. It was when all the rules by which the traditional economy had functioned were broken and remade. What this list says is that it really mattered how old you were when that transformation happened. If you were born in the late 1840’s you missed it.” Gladwell supports his case citing Sociologist C. Wright Mills who wrote “The best time during the history of the United States for the poor boy ambitious for high business success to have been born was around the year 1835.” Gladwell overlooked James J Hill. He was born in 1838! Paul Allen and Bill Gates founders of Microsoft were born 1955 and 1953 respectively. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founders of Apple were born in 1955 and 1950 respectively, Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems was born 1954. Nagavara Murthy founder of Infosys one of India's largest IT companies, Azim Premji founder of Wipro, one of the largest software companies in India and Shiv Nadar, founder of HCL Technologies, a global leader in IT Services were all born 1946, 1945 and 1945 respectively this time in India. Of course there are men and women that are successful in the above named individuals industries that were born much earlier and much later. But the clusters of birthdates do support the idea that there is a correlation between characteristics and environments.

In his book Blink Gladwell touches upon Suit-Abilty not directly but he certainly highlights the advantage of certain peculiar attributes that can provide an advantage in particular environments. Gladwell speaks about Larry Bird (arguably one of the greatest basketball players ever) and how he experiences the optimal range of arousal (stress) where performance can be greatly enhanced in some individuals. Bird’s peculiar psychological biology allowed him to slow time down during a stressful critical moments in a game. To Bird the players on the court all appear to slow down - very advantageous on a basketball court where mistakes or genius can win or lose millions of dollars. It allows the player to anticipate an opponent’s move or that of a teammate. Bird was well known this precise ability.

Dr. James Naismith, created the game basketball in1891, the TV has been commercially available since the late 1930. These great changes in history created the conditions where sports stars could attract enormous sums of monies in to sports industry through advertising, sponsorship and endorsement. This created an environment in which someone with the peculiarity of Larry Bird would thrive. Bill Gates speaking about Buffets views said “Football stars should feel grateful too, There just happens to be in a game where it turns out that a guy who can kick a ball with a funny shape through goal posts a fair percentage of the time can make millions of dollars a year” The two richest men in the world understood the random nature of opportunity and how it naturally selects those with the appropriate Suit-Abilty.

The traditional understanding of smart isn’t what makes you a winner as an entrepreneur. There are all kinds of smart; street-smart, emotional intelligence, engineering or pragmatic smart, political savvy, and as we have just heard sport smart (like court awareness in basketball). David Beckham’s ability to instinctively calculate the complex mathematical of trajectory, velocity and rotation dynamics (backspin) needed to get a football to clear defenders and reach a pinpoint target is legendary. It is a form of intelligence. Author of the book Football Physics: The Science of the Game, Timothy Gay highlights all manner of physics laws, such as the effect of Newton’s Law of Motion, in sport in his book. The great sporting stars, like Michael Jordan, can appear to conquer the understanding of physics from a practical stand point. Anyone that has watched him play knows he can actually fly and float in mid air! Some people seem made for their vocation.
A circus performer from Germany was touring the UK just before the break-out of WWI. He was renowned for his perfectly formed athletic physic and performed his act “living Greek statue.” As a child he was taunted by the other children for his weak and illness-prone body. But he drew inspiration from his Greek father, an award-winning gymnast and his German mother. She practiced of a form of medicine founded on the belief that diet, exercise, breathing exercise and other natural remedies were central to the origin and treatment of disease.

When the WWI broke out he was interned. Prison conditions were small and cramped limiting the space for healthy exercise. Many prisoners lying ill in bed had no means of exercising at all. The circus performer developed a range of exercises that would allow the practitioner to have a full body work out despite being confined to a minute area. His name was Joseph Pilates. Pilates is an industry today generating millions of pounds. A reputed 11 million people practice the discipline and over 14 thousand instructors reputed to be in the USA alone.

Barnum wrote several books, including one called The Art of Money-Getting in 1880. In his own was he picked-up on the importance of Suit-Abilty. In a chapter called “Don’t Mistake Your Vocation” he wrote “The safest plan, and the most sure of success for the young man starting in life, is to select the vocation which is congenial to his own taste… ‘Its common for a father to say I have five boys. I will make (remember this book was written in 1891) Billy a clergyman; John a lawyer; Tom a doctor, and Dick a farmer. He then goes into town and looks about to see what he will do with Sammy. He returns home and says “Sammy, I see watch-making is a nice genteel business; I think I will make you a goldsmith. He dioes this, regardless of Sam’s natural inclinations, or genius.
We are all, no doubt, born for a wise purpose. There is as much diversity in our brains as in our countenances. Some are born natural mechanics, whilst some have a great aversion to machinery. Let a dozen boys of ten years get together, and you will soon observe two or three are “whittling” out some ingenious device; working out some ingenious device; working with locks or complicated machinery. When they were but five years old, their father could find no toy to please them like a puzzle. They are natural mechanics; but the other eight or nine boys have different aptitudes. I belong to the latter class; I never had the slightest love for mechanism; on the contrary, I have a sort of abhorrence for complicated machinery. I never had ingenuity enough to whittle a cider tap so it would not leak. I never could make a pen that I could write with, or understand the principal of a steam engine., If a man was to take such a boy as I was, and attempt to make a watchmaker of him, the boy might, after an apprenticeship of five or seven years, be able to take apart and put together a watch: but all through life he would be working up hill and seizing every excuse for leaving work and idling away his time. Watch making is repulsive to him.
Unless a man enters upon the vocation intended for him by nature, and best suited to his peculiar genius, he cannot succeed…”
“Every human life is made to fit some place, and there is a place for every life...” Asa Candler. (founder of Coca Cola).

http://www.amazon.com/History-Worlds-Greatest-Entrepreneurs-ebook/dp/B003K16VYU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=A7B2F8DUJ88VZ&s=digital-text&qid=1286389177&sr=8-2-spell

The History of the World's Greatest (Entrepredator) Entrepreneurs

Sunday 24 October 2010

The Greatest Success Story Ever

Tuesday 5 October 2010

Leave School Early and Become a Millionaire