Acknowledgement:
For me at least, the idea of water as a business model began with Barbara Swanson. And, as is the case when one encounters an intriguing idea, it quickly becomes impossible to delineate who should get credit for what. So thank you, Barbara, for starting this.
The Model:
Of the substances on Earth, water can appear as one of the wimpiest of them all. It is very inconsistent and “wish washy”, changing quickly from solid to liquid to gas and back again. Even as a solid, water is much softer than steel. However, water can be said to be the more powerful of the two. A small amount of water vapor in the air can reduce steel to a crumbling pile of rust.
The considerable power of our greatest storms lies in the properties of water. Every gram of water vapor that changes to raindrops releases 540 calories of energy; energy expressed by the fury of the storm. When liquid water freezes into ice, it again releases energy, approximately 80 calories per gram.
Water is one of the basic components of all living things on Earth. It carries nutrients, it carries waste, it is a heat reservoir, and it keeps us cool. Living things pump water up, gravity pulls it down.
When gravity prevails, you see the formation of streams, lakes, and oceans. If there are obstacles, water flows around what it can’t move. Flowing water demonstrates the power of consistently applied small things. The sediment carried by streams abrade and wear away rocks, carving majestic canyons. You can’t stop it.
Build a dam across the canyon and the water will fill the impoundment with sediment. It would then run over the dam and cut its channel through. Turn the water into near weightless flakes of snow and it builds up glaciers that cut through mountains, grinding rocks to powder.
Even impounding water into our vast oceans doesn’t stop it. Buoyant, hot water flows north and south from the equator to replace the sinking cold water near the poles. But that is not the end of it either. The sun evaporates large amounts of water to keep the cycle going.
It is this persistent fluidity of water in all its phases that makes it a perfect analogy for succeeding in a business like selling Simplexity Health products. We must be persistent yet fluid in our approach. Obstacles do not need to stop us. They can be the occasion to turn us into new territory. Bringing the nutrients of AFA algae into the lives of others can be as much a blessing to them (and to you) as a gentle rain on thirsty plants.
Unlike water, we have the added power to decide to persist or not.
By Ellis Hein