1. Sustenance
Sustenance describes things that maintain someone or something. Here are some essential resources we need to sustain ourselves:
Food and clean water to satisfy our hunger and thirst
Shelter and clothing to keep us warm or shaded and protect us from the weather and climate
Energy to give us light and heat and to power other systems
Sustenance provides nourishment and satisfies our most basic physiological needs; therefore, it has a strong inward focus. It represents the essential resources that we need to ensure our own survival and self-preservation.
2. Expression
Expression is how we make our thoughts, feelings, and values known. We are a highly expressive and communicative species, using words, numbers, images, sounds, and texture to visually, verbally, and physically communicate with each other.
These are all forms of expression:
Words and stories
Numbers, charts, graphs, and ratings
Images and design—art, photography, fashion, and style of dress
Sound, music, and dance
Tastes, smells, and textures
We also need essential resources of expression to communicate in different ways to a variety of recipients and audiences:
Pen, paper, postal, and delivery services
Telephone lines and mobile phone networks
Newspapers, books, magazines, signs, and posters
Radio and television
Internet and social media channels
Expression starts with self and projects itself outward. It could go no further than your notebook or your room, or it could be shared with others. It represents the essential resources we need to convey our thoughts, ideas, insights, and feelings. Essential resources of expression enable us to communicate something about ourselves to others who have accessed the same or similar resources. We use these resources to communicate values, share culture, entertain, or evoke feelings.
This group of essential resources also includes design and aesthetics. For example, expression comes out in the style of our clothes, the products we use, and the cars we drive (or don’t drive). Our values influence the choices we make around the products and services we use, and, in turn, the things we use reflect our values to others.
These essential resources of expression signal to others how we feel, what our preferences are, and what kind of journey we are on. We quote lyrics from songs and key lines from books and films. We wear art and fashion. These things tells others who we are and to what tribe we believe we belong. It is through these resources that we are able to express our feelings, ideas, and values.
3. Connection
Essential resources of connection enable us to build relationships. Connection is an interdependent, multisided interaction with other people and with nature (as contrasted with expression, which is more one-sided and centered on the self).
To fulfill our desire to connect with others, we need essential resources that enable us to do the following:
Gather in pubs, town halls, community centers, hubs, and public spaces
Network at events and meet-ups
Transport ourselves in bikes, cars, planes, trains, and public transit systems
Facilitate, invite, and listen in conversation
We are social creatures, and we thrive when we are able to form healthy relationships with other people and maintain a connection with nature. Much of what we do in work, life, and play happens in connection with other people. Sometimes we enjoy doing things by ourselves, like going for a walk, reading a compelling story, or daydreaming, but we are rarely alone in life. We encounter people on the street, in shops, or over the phone when we are purchasing other essential resources. We are never far from someone else with our smartphones and social media channels at our fingertips. We are more successful, satisfied, and happy with our connections when we have the resources to help us build those relationships.
4. Managing Change
We all experience change. Our bodies change as we grow and our circumstances change over time as we form partnerships with people, move, relocate, learn, and change directions. Things may happen to us unexpectedly or we may initiate it. We deal with change by preparing for it, experiencing it, and managing it.
Here are some examples of essential resources for managing change:
Financial services and insurance help us deal with changes in our financial circumstances (or rather the financial consequences of changes in our lives).
Travel enables us to experience a change to our surroundings, both voluntarily or involuntarily.
Health care, often in the form of insurance, can help us manage changes to our health and the condition of our body and mind.
These are overlooked because we don’t realize we are using essential resources as our circumstances are changing.
Change may be something that happens to us, such as illness, accidents, or something financial in nature, or that we initiate, such as relocation, pregnancy, or returning to school. It may be short-term and temporary, such as travel and taking a vacation, or long-term and more permanent, such as a union or marriage. All of these changes require resources.
5. Making Decisions
We spend a significant amount of our time making decisions, and often it feels like this is all we do. Simple decisions of the day may be about what to wear or what to have for breakfast. Bigger decisions in life that shape our path (or perhaps it is our path that shape our decisions) are about how and in what ways to further our education, where in the world to live, and what we want our livelihood to be.
Essential resources for making decisions can be as basic as what direction the wind is blowing, the position of the sun overhead, and the location of the brightest star in the night sky. We may obtain them from speaking with friends, family, and acquaintances who have information to offer based on their previous experience, or we may learn new tools through our own trial and error.
In the information age, essential resources for making decisions have become more prominent. Directories, Internet search engines, and smartphone apps aim to help us find what we are looking for. Products and services are reviewed by peers, friends, and complete strangers to help us make decisions that better suit us.
Information comes in many forms, and it is the integration of information from analysis, emotion, body, and intuition that enables us to make complete and whole decisions.
6. Exchange
We are not able to produce all our essential resources by ourselves—therefore, we need systems for exchange. The most familiar example is money. In itself it is not a useful resource, but when we trade or exchange it for the things we need and want, it becomes useful. Money, however, is not the only essential resource for exchange. Alternative currencies, community-based systems, and bartering can also be effective.
The Interconnectedness of the Essential Resources
Each one of the six essential resources is connected to the other five. We sustain ourselves to have enough energy and fuel for expression, connection, managing change, and making decisions. When we express ourselves, we communicate what other resources we have or need. We connect with other people and interact with them as we access those resources. We manage changes in our circumstances that affect how, when, and why we access other things we need. We make decisions about other essential resources and need them to exchange for other things we need or want.
How Essential Resources for Making Decisions Relate to All the Other Essential Resources
Essential resources for making decisions are particularly important to our survival and happiness, so much so that it often feels like we spend almost all of our time on them. These are the most critical of all of the essential resources because they help us identify and find other things we need and help us choose among alternatives.
Sustenance : Our bodies tell us we are hungry and need food, but we need information to decide what to eat, how much, and how often
. If the basic need of hunger is easily met, we make decisions about whether to grow and cook our own food, buy it from a farmers’ market, local grocer, supermarket, or food wholesaler, or eat at a restaurant. Our bodies may feel cold as the temperature around us drops, but we must decide whether to wear a sweater, heavy coat, hat, or scarf to sufficiently keep ourselves warm.
Expression : We make decisions about how we want to express ourselves and in what medium to communicate our thoughts, ideas, feelings, and emotions. We decide whether to write a story, rate something on a scale of one to ten, paint a picture, tell a joke, or act something out using interpretive dance. Our decisions affect what we wear and how we decorate our homes.
Connection : We decide with whom we connect and how—with openness and invitation or with judgment and defensiveness. We make decisions about where we go to meet people.
Managing Change : We make decisions about how much change we can tolerate or actively pursue. We can decide to embrace adventure, quit our jobs, and embark on an around-the-world trip. We may decide that we require greater safety and security as we prepare to grow our family, have children, care for elders, or maintain our own health.
Making Decisions : This is where things get exciting and challenging. Essential resources for making decisions help us find and access more resources for making further decisions! As I mentioned above, essential resources for making decisions help us identify and find other resources we need and help us choose among alternatives. Although it may seem strange, that includes other essential resources for making decisions.
Exchange : We make decisions about what medium of exchange to use, how to get it, and what to spend it on. We must make decisions about whether to get a job or start a business to obtain money, the most familiar medium of exchange. We make decisions about whether to save our money, spend it, or invest it.
The decision to further our education—in school, through practical application, by attending workshops and talks, by asking others to mentor us, by reading books, or by observing others—equips us with additional essential resources like information, knowledge, and experience that help inform and shape how we will make decisions in the future.
This book, for instance, is a resource for making decisions—its content is designed to provide information and encourage a more integrated approach to investment decision making.
How Did You Get That Essential Resource?
Food as an Essential Resource of Sustenance
Food is energy for our bodies; we need it for sustenance. However, food meets multiple needs, and it can be a resource for things other than sustenance. Food is also a medium by which we express ourselves. We express our culture and our preferences through the food we eat and where we eat it. For some people, eating is a social activity. Meetings, conversations, and dates happen over food, making it a resource through which we can connect with other people.
Fashion as an Essential Resource of Expression
Fashion and our style of dress have long been essential resources for expression. What we wear expresses our mood, our tribe, and our culture.
Air Travel as an Essential Resource of Connection
Air travel—which includes the system of airplanes, companies, airports, and infrastructure—serves as an essential resource for connecting with others. It allows us to travel from one place to another to see and connect with people who live there. Sometimes people travel because they want to explore another land and culture. It was the idea of flight and long-distance travel that sparked the invention of airplanes—the desire to communicate an idea, to connect with people, and to prepare for change. Over time, air transportation itself has had to adapt and evolve to the needs of people and the availability of different forms of essential resources. Concorde was the supersonic jet that first flew in 1969 and significantly reduced flying times between New York and Europe. Concorde made its final flight in 2003 as a consequence of rising fuel costs and a negative response following a major crash of one of its aircraft in 2003. As technology improved and laptops and mobile communications became common, people had access to different essential resources and were able to continue with their activities whilst on a regular flight, without the need to travel so quickly.
Financial Products and Services as Essential Resources for Managing Change
Banks and the financial products and services they provide exist to help us manage change. Financial products and services enable us to save money for a rainy day or proactively manage significant life changes such as education, buying a home, raising children, and looking after our elders.
Information as an Essential Resource for Making Decisions
When there is food, shelter, and energy available, as well as many other resources, you need to not only survive but also thrive. In this case, the one resource that becomes invaluable is information.
Increasingly, information is becoming one of the most sought-after resources. The business of collecting, mining, analyzing, and reselling data can be lucrative. In a time when technology has made the collection of data easy, processing it into meaningful information to assist people in their decision making is hugely valuable. I credit having access to information, as well as the skills and experience to filter, synthesize, and evaluate it, as one of the most impactful advantages I have had in life. Information about weather, rainfall, sunshine, and the fertility of a patch of land is important to a farmer. Information about the food we eat and the air we breathe is also significant. We seek information about neighborhoods, schools, businesses, and people to make decisions about where to live, our education and that of our family, where we buy things, and with whom we connect. Information as a resource for making decisions is an essential need, and businesses that give us access to information serve a critical purpose.
Purposeful Businesses Exist to Give Us Access to Essential Resources
Businesses exist to give us access to all six essential resources, helping us to fulfill and satisfy our needs and live happy and thriving lives.
Business owners, entrepreneurs, advisors, and consultants involved in the building of companies frequently speak about the purpose of business as being able to solve a problem, meet a need, or relieve pain experienced by their customers. There is a direct connection between the vernacular in the business world and essential resources. When business people speak of solving a problem, they mean helping customers access essential resources.
Some businesses, which I call “purposeful businesses,” help get essential resources into our hands. The following is not an exhaustive inventory of all businesses imaginable, but it should give you a sense of the types of enterprises that exist and the role they play. Notice how pervasive purposeful businesses are in our society and economic system.
Purposeful Businesses that Provide Sustenance
Essential resources of sustenance include food and clean water, which satiate our hunger and thirst, and shelter and clothing, which protect us from the elements.
Farm businesses, including large-scale industrial operations or smaller urban farms in your neighborhood, grow, process, and distribute food. Wholesale companies, retailers, restaurants, cafés, and fast food outlets help to bring the food to your table.
Businesses that treat, purify, and sanitize dirty water give us access to clean, drinkable water. There are also businesses that add and combine ingredients to make other products for us to drink and satiate our thirst.
We access clothing after businesses grow the materials, such as silk, cotton, or wool, or manufacture the materials, such as polyester, nylon, or Lycra. Along the production chain, businesses weave the materials into textiles, create, and deliver the garments. Retailers, including second-hand and consignment stores, sell the clothing to us.
Similarly, shelter in the form of houses and buildings exist after businesses harvest materials like wood, iron, and aluminum, or manufacture materials like plastic and vinyl. Businesses process materials, and they build, deliver, and manage properties. We
access shelter after house-building and construction companies, property development companies, and property owners that rent buildings to tenants have played their part.
Purposeful businesses provide us access to raw materials and resources for processing, manufacturing, delivery, distribution, consumption, or occupation, all of which are essential resources of sustenance.
Purposeful Businesses that Enable Expression
Writing, images, film, fashion, art, music, food, fragrances, and other creative media allow us to express ourselves, our ideas, and our values to others. In this section, we focus on the businesses that make these essential resources of expression accessible to us.
Businesses exist to make, produce, display, market, distribute, and sell the books, images, fashion, music, food, and other media of expression. For art, there are galleries and art dealers. Literary agents, editors, publishers, printers, and online media producers make the written word in the form of books, magazines, or digital media accessible to us. Print-on-demand and social media platforms, themselves businesses, have emerged to enable artists and creators to self-produce and self-publish their own work. Music producers and retailers are businesses that give us access to recorded music. Live music reaches us via promoters, ticket sellers, and concert venues. Film and video reach us via producers and stores (in real life and online). Businesses operate movie theaters, produce, and distribute DVD s, and provide video streaming to our computers. All of these businesses and more make various forms of expression accessible.
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