Eels and salmon symbolise enterpreneurs and corporate employees who move between the two realms

CorporateNature No 153

By George ELIOT

If RIVERS are a metaphor for the startup world (fresh, fast flowing and ever changing), the OCEAN is analogous to the corporate world (stagnant, vast but occasionally tempestuous).

Most fish species live in either rivers or  the ocean. However, there are two interesting fish families that move between the two: eels and salmon.

A) EELS

Eels are born in the ocean but spend their adult life in rivers. They are a metaphor for a corporate employee who at some point becomes an entrepreneur. 

B) SALMON

Salmon are born in rivers but spend their life in the ocean. They are a metaphor for an entrepreneur who moves into the corporate world. 

Just as both fish species are highly valued and important for the ecosystem, both types of professionals create value for the economy and society. Which of the two is more interesting remains up to you.

Eel (Source: Wikipedia)

Without flow, lakes turn into swamps; Without development, cities become ruins

CorporateNature No 148

If water stops flowing, it turns into a swamp.

If a city stops developing, it turns into ruins.

Both of these "end states" have their role in nature and society: swamps are important habitats for wetland species; while ruins can evolve into tourism hubs or degenerate into quarries for construction material. 

Neither of these would ever be completely still: there will be movement in the swamp when a frog or a bird disturbs the surface; and tourists will shuffle around the columns and arches of city ruins. Yet, these disturbances do not equal progression in a determined direction, as in when a river flows and a living city develops.

Roman ruins (image source: Wikipedia)

Selfless and self-serving jobs resemble wheat stalks and rivers

CorporateNature No 137

There are two types of jobs: selfless and self-serving. They have a lot in common with wheat and water in the metaphorical realm.

1. SELFLESS JOBS RESEMBLE SEEDS THAT SCATTER

Professions such as teaching and nursing benefit society: these vocations exist for the greater good of all people. People working in these positions spend their time and energy selflessly, often driven by the conviction that their noble efforts must help those around them. In financial slang, these people "leave money on the table" (for others to pick up), i.e. they create value that is not appropriated by themselves.

Such occupations resemble a wheat stalk that shatters and sheds its seeds on the ground. While this is not beneficial for the farmer who planted the wheat, it helps propagate future generations. 

2. SELF-SERVING JOBS ARE SEEDS THAT DO NOT SHATTER

Bankers work hard, just like nurses and teachers. However, they appropriate most of the results of their efforts for their own benefit. Ironically, they are people who work with money, yet they "don't leave money on the table" as they are better at extracting value for themselves. 

This profession resembles cereal plants that do not shatter and whose grains stay on the stalk after ripening. Although this is good for the farmer who planted the cereals as it allows harvesting the grain,  the natural process of propagating the seeds is put in jeopardy.

3. SELFLESS JOBS RESEMBLE RIVERS THAT DON'T REACH THE SEA

Another example from nature can illustrate this parallel: most rivers reach the sea and deliver their water to the ocean, give or take some evaporation and human consumption. Such rivers are like the “bankers” who keep resources to themselves.

On the other hand, a handful of rivers never reach the ocean, e.g. the Okavango in southern Africa. The Okavango irrigates a vast inland delta and subsumes itself into it. The Okavango disperses all its water into a vast and fertile wetland that creates habitats for myriads of animals and plants, just like teachers and the nurses give themselves away for the benefit of humankind.

Wheat stalk (image source: Wikipedia) 

Extroverts are like surface runoff. Introverts are like rivers fed by groundwater.

Extroverts instantly pour out their inner self in one go: like streams of rainwater after rain. Introverts communicate slowly and intently: like spring water welling up from deep underground.

CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 120

Two key categories in personality tests are “introvert” and “extrovert”. Although it is true that we tend toward a certain pattern of behaviour which can be labelled as “introverted” or “extroverted”, no person is completely one or the other - it is a spectrum. Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung gave the following definition: “Each person seems to be energised more by either the external world (extraversion) or the internal world (introversion).” 

1. Extroverts are like surface runoff after heavy rainfall.

When there is an excess of stormwater or meltwater (external influence), it forms a stream. This flow is strong at first but quickly dries up after the external influence is no longer present. In the same way, extroverts get energised by social interaction but are prone to mood dips during periods of “drought” in their social life. Famously, when asked a question extroverts first speak and then think: everything comes out at once, just like surface runoff.

2. Introverts are like rivers fed by groundwater.

A river valley rich in groundwater provides a steady inflow to the river over extended periods of time. While the river is still affected by external factors (water levels rise and drop seasonally), the regular groundwater flow ensures that the river will not dry up. Similarly, introverts source their energy from their internal world. While introverts may occasionally get overwhelmed by prolonged social interactions, all the tools they need to recharge are within themselves. And when asked a question, introverts first think and only then speak, like the slow discharge of groundwater into a river system.

Surface runoff
(image source: Wikipedia)

Rivers erode mountains and fertilise plains; Humans build and apply knowledge

By George ILIEV
CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 97

Rivers erode mountains upstream and deposit the eroded grains of sand and silt downstream, fertilising the plains. Similarly, people accumulate grains of knowledge when younger and integrate and apply this knowledge when they get older, creating "rivers of knowledge".

What is the ideal amount of knowledge one needs - to go through life and leave a mark? 

Let's start with the minimum amount: this would be a short and slow-running river that starts in the plains and simply doesn't erode anything or deposit anything. 

What would be too much then? Possibly a long river like the Yellow River in China (Huang He) which erodes huge amounts of loess upstream and then floods the plains with alluvial silt - so much so that historically it often formed a viaduct of silt above the level of the plains and when, sooner or later, it would break these natural levees, it would flood the plains and drown hundreds of thousands. This type of river in the human world are some philosophers: people with extraordinary depth, yet unable to communicate with and be understood by the ordinary people around them.

The ideal "river of knowledge" is probably the Nile: a long river that accumulates silt and fertilises the desert. Unlike the dreaded floods of the Yellow River, the flooding of the Nile was welcomed and treasured by the ancient Egyptians - so much so that they built their calendar around this annual event.

The Yellow River at Hukou Falls (Source: Wikipedia)