The Srategic Cheetah

If we move away from human beings to animals, there is something to emulate from the cheetah. Everybody knows that the cheetah is the fastest of all land animals. It can reach speeds between 112 kilometres per hour (70 mph) and 120 kilometres per hour (75 mph) in short bursts up to 460 metres (500 yd). It has the ability to accelerate from 0 to 110 kilometres per hour (68 mph) in three seconds, faster than most super cars. Yet, if the cheetah goes hunting 100 times, on the average, it succeeds in catching its prey only 50 out of those 100 times. Why does such a speed machine have such a low (50 per cent) success rate? The cheetah is made in such a way that when it runs so fast, its body temperature rises so high that the cheetah could die if it continues. So it knows that its ability to feed depends on its speed. The cheetah cannot start a chase unless it has stalked its prey to within 10 metres, and must end the chase within a minute, whether successful or unsuccessful. If it fails to catch its prey within a minute, it stops and rests. But if it catches its prey and kills it, it quickly eats as much of it as it can before other stronger predators appear. Unlike the leopard, which takes its kill up a tree for safety, the cheetah cannot climb. And unlike most predators which hunt by scent and vision, the cheetah hunts by vision. Therefore, speed is key to the cheetah’s success and survival. You may not take off with the speed of a cheetah, but it is very important you take off somehow. Ideas rule the world. But ideas don’t drop from the sky. Men and women spend sleepless nights and days to come up with them. A good idea may be difficult to come by, but there is one thing that is not difficult to come by: fact. It is a fact that human beings must eat food and drink water. It is a fact that the more the human beings in a community increase in number, the greater their demand for food and water and shelter and clothing. Most great ideas come from these simple facts. But it is one thing to know these facts and another thing to turn them into profitable ideas.