Nature sends out millions of pollen, for only a few to become seeds.

Out of thousands of seeds only a few will sprout seedlings, and eventually become trees.

Consider the thousands of sea turtle eggs laid on a beach, of which a handful will grow into an adult turtle.

If you think it doesn’t happen in the human species, ask yourself, “ How many sperm does it take to fertilize an egg?” One! So why send out an army in every encounter?

This story is repeated for virtually every species, plant or animal. Far more resources are spent on creating the progeny than ever reach fruition, let alone maturity.

Is nature wasteful? Yes, clearly at the next generation phase, nature is incredibly wasteful.

Charles Darwin said of nature. “Clumsy, wasteful, blundering low & horribly cruel.”

Yet, nature continues to survive for millennia. According to Hindu cosmology the lower world goes through dissolution, Pralaya (Sanskrit) ; but, nature survives and marches on- even to re-create human life all over again.

Even if you disregard that mythology, scientists know that Dinosaurs first appeared over 200 million years ago, and were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 100 million years. An “event” led to the extinction of most dinosaur groups and some three-quarters of plant and animal species on Earth. Even a dominant species was not immune to annihilation due to that “event”. Some birds, a variant of the species, survived that catastrophic event and their descendants continue the lineage to the present day.

More recently during 1845 to 1852 a potato blight ravaged potato crops throughout Europe and caused mass starvation, disease, and emigration in Ireland . During the Irish Potato Famine, approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland. A single strain of blight was instrumental in wiping out an entire crop of potatoes. A variant strain survived and its off-springs are still providing us with french fries.

So is nature wasteful; or, is there a grand design in its wastefulness?

The sexual way of reproduction is a roll of the dice. With each generation, two recessive genes come together to be expressed anew. Usually, such a combination leads to a similar individual offspring. Sometimes, the result is a birth defect. A “mistake” so severe that it may lead to pain, misery, and even early death. But, this design parameter is for life to take the 1 in a million chance that one innovative combination will come about that will be the one that actually advances the species. Even with odds that low, nature doesn’t stop with the high “failure” rate, it just keeps trying again and again for that one chance.

Each new generation continues to be loaded with mutations. Most of these result in either no change or a “mistake”. But in a rare few cases, totally by chance, one mutation appears that makes it better able to survive — and be more adaptive to the changing conditions. That is the reason nature is tolerant of its own “mistakes”, and it makes those “failures” freely. What we see as “wasteful”, is a well planned strategy driven by evolutionary pressures. These one in a million chances develop new strains that are more capable of surviving the “events” and “blights” that will emerge from time to time with the changing conditions.

In an interesting way, in many cases, the wastefulness ends up not being a waste after all. Trees can’t protect their young, and so they have to hope that of the thousands or even millions they produce, a handful will not get eaten by other life forms before reaching maturity. Same can be said for animals. Many have to be procreated for a few to survive predators.

But, the seeds make it possible for the food chain that surrounds the trees to continue. Animals, even humans rely on them as a food source. And without that food chain, the trees would surely go extinct for want of pollinators. Animals would starve and become extinct. It is a balanced ecosystem.

This cycle applies to all life forms. Birds, mammals, insects, even mold and fungi and other organisms— they rely on the huge output of these plants and/or animals to survive as well as grow.

It’s that symbiosis that keeps nature going. Trees and animals may not know this grand design— of excess seeds and of evolution, because that occurs over generations. But, it keeps nature marching on in spite of any one species becoming extinct or unviable. While the evolutionary changes are slowly taking place the bulk of the “waste” provides a food chain for the present survival.

Nature is not concerned about efficiency it has to be effective for a very long time.Think of it as a really a well balanced, brilliant plan!

Only in sheltered human environments, surrounded by brick and stone and cement, we mistakenly call natures grand plan as wasteful.

What are the lessons we take away from the brilliant proven process of Nature? It is to design:

1. Survival capability under changing conditions, and

2. Use the “excess (waste)” to provide sustenance for the present.

How can we apply these lessons to our advantage? After all humans are a selfish creatures. We use nature to our advantage. Agriculture is all about humans using this natural growth of plants and animals to manage species that are of use to us and provide sustenance for human life to grow and prosper. We grow food for now, as well as “better” strains of apples and roses for the future. This use is well known. Over centuries we have developed a whole set of industries to take advantage of this knowledge.

My interest is in using this brilliant strategy for building our institutions-our businesses and particularly our entrepreneurial new ventures.

A corporation, as we have designed them is a relatively new development. We all know that the life cycle of a company is about the life cycle of a human individual. New ventures start with grand fan fare, most die, some prosper and grow and ultimately die anyway or are eaten up by other predators (sound familiar?). Can we apply the lessons of Nature to our ventures? Yes we can!

Tune in next Post for a detailed process of using Natures wastefulness to design our entrepreneurial growth strategies!! As a mentor I have always advocated the use of this “Natural” process and found it to be very impactful. (See Post for clues: Generate Good Ideas: The Worst Thing You Can Do)

Dr. Rajiv Tandon is an Entrepreneur, Educator and Mentor. His present interest is in advancing the art, science and practice of Mentoring.

Suggestions, Questions and Comments related to advancing Mentor-Mentee topics, especially for entrepreneurs, are most welcome.