I like penguins. That’s partly why I name this business blog Biz Penguin. It’s a catchy name and I expect it to stick on your mind as a brand. Plus with our orange-themed front-end design instead of the typical penguins’ black-and-white, I expect this blog to confuse you a bit and at the same time getting our branding messages across 🙂
Jokes aside, I choose this blog’s name after the penguins because I have much respect to them: These flightless birds’ behaviours are superior among other birds. If you explore a bit deeper about them, I’m sure you will find a lesson or two that you can put into practice in your business and entrepreneurial journey.
To learn more about penguins’ behaviour, just go visit Wikipedia’s page about penguins.
There are loads of business lessons you can learn from the penguins, but if you asked me, I would give you these 5 behaviours you and I should learn from when it comes to business. Check these out:
1. Penguins hang out in large colonies
Okay, perhaps this is a not-so-special behaviour. But there’s a major lesson you can take from it: If you want your business to grow, you can’t simply do it all alone: You need to surround yourself with like-minded people; you need to join a community – both online and offline – in which you can share your experience, as well as get top advices on how to grow your business well.
Even solopreneurs need to get social; they need to get involved in a community which members share your aspiration.
2. Penguins opt for a monogamous relationship
If you can’t commit yourself in a monogamous relationship, well, you’d better learn from the penguins… This also holds true with business partnership. If you want success that is bound to last, you need to honour your partnership: Betrayal and backstabbing are obviously not helping your business to grow.
3. All penguins share the incubation duties
During the breeding season, a penguin couple shares egg incubation duties. When a male penguin takes care of the egg, the female penguin hunts fish. When it finally goes back, they switch duties. This is teamwork.
We can’t deny that teamwork is one of the key success factors if you want your business to thrive. If you are co-founding a startup, it’s ideal for you and your partner to have a designated role. You can assume the role of CEO-slash-business-developer or COO-slash-marketing – your choice.
4. Penguins have high level of social interaction between birds
If you ever watched a documentary about penguins, you soon realized that the penguin colony is very noisy! That’s because the birds are actually interacting among themselves (well some bullies the others, but that’s not the majority!)
Do you want business growth? If so, go interacting with fellow small business owners. Chances are, they know more than you. Some might not want to share with you – not even a bit, but there are always people who are more than happy to help you out without expecting anything in return.
5. Penguins are not particularly afraid of humans
Did you know that, penguins seem to have no special fear of humans? Penguins are comfortable in approaching explorers (but not closer than 3 meters – they can become nervous!) But they are swift swimmers – just in case…
Humans are typically viewed as threat; yet the penguins are not afraid. Well, business owners and entrepreneurs are facing similar threat; they are dealing with risks on regular basis. The principle is simple, really: High risk, high gain; low risk, low gain. Playing safe won’t get you far; so, don’t be afraid of taking risk… just take and manage it so you can minimise the potential issues in the future.
So, there you go – 5 penguin behaviours you and I can learn from. Do you have any favourite animals – or pets – that inspire you to be a better business owner? Please share your story by leaving a comment on this post!
