Start-up Fables No. 1: The Two Hunters
Once upon a time, in a world quite unlike our own, there were two hunters called Rabbie and Ellie. The hunters lived alone, each in a home next door to each other. The next nearest person lived a hundred miles away.
In this world animals were plentiful, and hunters ate meat – as this world is quite unlike ours, we can debate whether they should have been vegetarian another time. This is, after all, a fable.
They lived in an unusual part of their world, where there were only two types of animals. The small, furry and prolific animal quite like a rabbit, which we’ll just call Wabbits and the scarce, well dispersed pachyderm, a little like an elephant but without tusks, which we’ll just call Ellipants.
Being hunters, the two neighbours went hunting every day. They carried their weapons out in the open fields and forests and spent the day in pursuit of their quarry. Rabbie had a taste for Wabbits and the Ellie had a taste for Ellipants, so the two hunters rarely, if ever, saw each other during the day.
Each evening the hunters returned to their homes.
Most days Rabbie came home with a Wabbit in the bag, and so most days had something to eat. Wabbits were all around and bred like… well you get the idea. Rabbie bagged a Wabbit most days, which made just one main meal, and Rabbie didn’t have a freezer.
On the rare days when Rabbie missed, well these were days without a main meal. Rabbie had plenty of practice and rarely missed.
Most days Ellie came home with nothing. A little thinner from a lot of walking and definitely hungry. Thankfully Ellie had a freezer (or maybe two) and each Ellipant was carefully portioned up and would last a year.
This was a good thing, because it took Ellie about a year to bag an Ellipant. For some reason, though large, they were elusive and hard to find. And they always looked closer than they actually were. Ellie missed often, and got little practice, so each attempt had to count.
The hunters lived happily for the rest of their days, Rabbie catching Wabbits most days and Ellie catching Ellipants once a year.
Until that is, Ellie missed an important target and starved to death.
Moral: It is better to eat for a day most days than a year most years.
No rabbits, wabbits, elephants or ellipants were harmed in the making of this fable.
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8 年Awesome ?? Thanks for sharing Stuart Hillston
Proven, Entrepreneurial CEO & Managing Director
8 年Spot on an yup, learned that one the hard way. Of course, the problem for entrepreneurial hunters is that while lots of Ellies starve, leaving opportunities for wannabe ellipant hunters to emulate her, there is little margin in hunting wabbits. Best openings are for: 1) Freddie the farmer, who invents/ supplies fencing and 2) Charlie the cattle baron, who produces an interim product with his moos. Rabbie's problems will come when Charlie gets fed up with wabbits eating grass that has been enclosed for his moos, and introduces fexes to predate on wild wabbits. The moment Rabbie has three consecutive bad days, working for Charlie will start to look attractive, particularly if Mrs Rabbie and the Rabbiebrats are sick to the back teeth of wabbit meat. Or Rabbie could get into the fox fur trade.... Moral 1: even when your wining someone somewhere has an idea that will undermine your previously stable position. Moral 2: successful innovation changes the market. Fortunately for Rabbie, this does not happen often... Hope this hasn't spoiled chapter two.
Founder & Owner Bewertungsraum
8 年Love it, Stuart!
Co-Founder @ Yepic AI | Edge-Based Emotionally Intelligent Personal Assistants
8 年Haha, very good.