-Do you respect and grow the talent of your peers, or do you leverage it so you can shine?

-Do you have transparency with your vendors, or do you try to squeeze every drop of value from them until they move on and you find someone else?

-Do you feel good or bad when you’ve clearly exploited someone’s position to your benefit?

-Do you weaken or strengthen the power of the people around you?

-Do you still maintain relationships where you benefit much more than you contribute?

These are but a few questions that define whether or not you can play a more significant role in the global business ecosystem you participate in. As the world becomes more connected and thus transparent, the rules that apply to biological ecosystem apply here as well.

The big difference though is that in nature, parasitic, symbiotic and dynamic relationships are played by the same players without the possibility of moving up or down the change (apart from evolution over time). With people in business, the evolutionary cycles are faster and more immediate than ever, and growth is dependent on the ability to adopt to new mind shifts from “small timer” to major player.

The real question then is about your mentality. I’d written earlier about Landlord vs Trader mentality, but this is far more fundamental. It’s about nobility. The best definition of nobility I’ve hear to date is:

Nobility is not about how much better you are than someone else, but rather, how much better are you than your former self.

So now, truthfully ask yourself:

Are you just a bottom feeder, a leach, a coattail rider, a predator, or can you shift your mentality to be an integral part of the business ecosystem you play in? Your survivability in the bold new world might just depend on it.