It has been commonly understood that the principles of "Survival of the Fittest" explains the evolutionary processes of all living species that inhabit our planet. Charles Darwin (1808-1882) compiled from his observations of the species in the early 19th century concluded that natural selection happens to explain the present order of all living nature that exist now. "From this it may be inferred: In a world of stable populations where each individual must struggle to survive, those with the 'best' characteristics will be more likely to survive, and those desirable traits will be passed to their offspring. These advantageous characteristics are inherited by following generations, becoming dominant among the population through time. This is natural selection."
The problem is, his conclusion (or more to the point, the way he expressed it) has led to the fundamental misunderstanding of how an ecosystem functions. "Survival of the Fittest" implies that each species (organisms) are individual and in constant competition with each other and may the strong only survive and keep evolving. This observation is clearly flawed. If I was to explain the process of "evolution as survival of the most co-operative a deep cultural belief is properly restored.
The oldest Aboriginal culture held such beliefs that organisms that survive are not the strongest individuals but the ones that have the greatest relationships with other organisms. The higher the species diversity, the greater number of relationships with other organisms.
Aboriginal culture practised this in bush lore (law) and custom and people were relative to their spirits in the landforms, rivers, trees and animals. For example, a developing Australian wattle plant will provide the sugar for the ants for food and protect itself from grubs and caterpillars because the ants:
1. eat the grubs and; 2. break up the compacted ground at its roots to live in the soil thereby providing oxygen and moisture access to the roots of the wattle plant.
More so, if the wattle plant has associations with many other insects for its sugar then should the ants become extinct, the wattle continues to survive through its network of relationships with the other insects. It does not matter how healthy and strong and perfectly adapted the species of the wattle is if the wattle had the one association with the ant, the wattle would become extinct and so would the ant.
Survival in an "online" or "offline" business" has the same principles as those of the evolutionary processes of species, in that a business CEO or Entrepreneur would do well to form relationships with other similar niche operators so as to form mutually beneficial outcomes. For example advert swaps, email lists, corporate sponsorships, college grants and joint venture promotions. As early as man can remember trade and commerce was a fair exchange between populations inhabiting our planet and no individual, country or nation can be totally self sustaining or at the very least maintain a progressive economy.