Roosevelt’s biggest threat in the Amazon Forest

I stumbled into a book about a tough dude who loved adventure, Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt loved adventure so much that he risked his life to go down a river, The River of Doubt, in the Amazon forest.

This book was an appreciation of what thrives in the toughest & most competitive environments. Great takeaways for us as leaders competing in competitive markets.

After losing his reelection for a third term as President, Roosevelt embarked on the incredibly dangerous journey to traverse the Amazon forest.

This brutal adventure was in a vicious forest where only the toughest and most adapted creatures survive. The Amazon forest showcased: “the ruthless efficiency with which it apportioned food and nutrients, in the bewildering complexity of its defense mechanisms, in the constant demands that it placed upon every one of its inhabitants, and in the ruthlessness with which it dealt with the weak, the hungry, or the infirm.” (180)

I thought the most dangerous aspects of Roosevelt’s journey in the Amazon would have been the jaguars, big snakes, big beasts, etc. I was wrong:

Even jaguars posed as ‘utterly trivial compared to the real dangers of the wilderness – the torment and menace of attacks by the swarming insects, by mosquitoes and the even more intolerable tiny gnats, by the ticks, and by the vicious poisonous ants which occasionally cause villages and even whole districts to be deserted by human beings… These insects… are what the pioneer explorers have to fear.

The insects of the Amazon are the most aligned and find strength in their alignment and clarity of teamwork. The ants in particular were very scary for Roosevelt. The ants showcase their incredible ability to function as a team:

Acting in concert, but with highly specialized roles, columns of hundreds of thousands of army ants can fan out in raiding parties fifty feet across at their front lines, harvesting huge numbers of tarantulas, roaches, beetles, scorpions, snakes, lizards, birds, and nearly anything else in their path before returning at dusk with the bodies of their prey at their common bivouac.

The opportunity for us as leaders is to build organizations that are aligned. Just as the insects in the Amazon were the most terrifying… the most difficult businesses to compete with in the marketplace are those that are aligned.

It’s a great reminder that you don’t need the biggest balance sheet, the best equipment to be the most fierce in the marketplace.

Just like the insects in the Amazon. Adapt. Step by step. Over a LONG period of time.

It compounds.

Onward,

Matt