Last week in the Disney Animal Kingdom, our safari guide taught us about the gigantic Boabab tree. One Boabab tree can hold as much as 4.5 thousand liters of water. This tree is often called the “Upside-down Tree” because when it’s leaves fall the branches look like roots and and the tree appears to be upside down. This tree is found most commonly in belts throughout Africa.
These trees have enormous, trunks and live for thousands of years. One Boabab tree has a trunk with a diameter of more than 25 meters, and was dated to have been living at the time of Noah’s flood (source).
These trees teach about how businesses, countries and families can survive hard economic times. The Boabab tree can drop it’s leaves for up to 9 months of the year to survive drought. So, one of the secrets to the longevity of this tree is that it can dramatically reduce it’s consumption of resources when those resources become scarce. When economic conditions get tough, do our families, businesses and countries have the wisdom to do the same thing?
Did you know that for each dollar Obama wants to spend in 2010, more than 30 cents are borrowed?
When times get tough and income shrinks, the companies, families and countries that have the discipline to proportionally reduce expenditures in a timely manner have a much greater chance of survival. In short, strong companies, families and countries know that they can’t spend more than they make for long, or they are dramatically increasing the chances of economic failure.
Posted on February 15th, 2010 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Business Management, Economy, Life Lessons
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