Earlier this year I was floating in my pool looking up at the nearby tree branches and knowing as the leaves danced in the gentle afternoon breezes, that each leaf was absorbing light and combining that light with water and air to produce the majestic physical form that stood proudly in front of me.

How is that possible? Does anyone else see the difficulty here? Producing wood from light, water and air?!?! Yet we know that is precisely what happens through a process we call photosynthesis.  Leaves are fragile, yet they absorb light energy and produce tangible product every day, even at night! It’s a rainforest strategy and it’s brilliant!

As I considered this, I knew right then that the answer to our energy problems could be found in any leaf on any tree, if we only knew how to unlock the secret. After all, in about one hour the amount of solar energy that hits the earth is enough to power the planet for an entire year!  We just haven’t figured out how to efficiently tap into that power source.  Foolishly, I decided that smarter people than me had researched this and come up short. I didn’t follow the strong leading I had to take a different approach and look for a solution myself despite knowing in my knower that the process of photosynthesis contained the answer!

Fortunately for all of us, Dr. Daniel Nocera of MIT recently made a discovery that I predict will revolutionize life on this planet in the next decade. There are many lessons to be learned here… First of all, nature is a great teacher if you are willing to study and keep an open mind. Secondly, never discount yourself just because others have tried and failed. You never know, you might just be the one to solve the energy crisis or world hunger or…???

This is another great example of learning from nature. The shark, renowned for its stealth and speed was used as a model for the Fastskin™ swimsuit that Michael Phelps wore to dominate the last two Olympics collecting an astounding 15 gold medals! Most certainly it wasn’t the swimsuit that made him fast, but it did make him faster, even if only by a small margin. Remember… one of his gold medals came after beating the Serbian by a margin of only 1/100th of a second. That’s the time it takes lightning to reach the ground!

What allows the shark unfettered speed are the V-shaped ridges on its skin which minimize drag and turbulence around its body allowing it to pass through water more effectively. Fastskin™ fabric is constructed in a way that emulates the ridges on the sharkskin so that it reduces drag and muscle vibration and increasing productivity. Fastskin™ is just one of a growing number of examples of what has become known as biomimicry a new discipline that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems.

While we can all benefit from biomimicry, there is much more to learn from the principles by which nature thrives. Join us next time as we continue to pull real life examples of success in business and life that mimic or are modeled from nature.