Under the unexperienced eyes, competitiveness and collaboration are often seen as opposing forces, where one drive innovation and efficiency, the latest allows people and organizations to share resources and knowledge, leading to greater overall success.

Once I heard a story describing the behaviors of birds. During the freezing winter, when food is scarce, it's noticeable that when starving they live together amicably, huddling together to keep each other warm. And if a small quantity of food is given, they will eat it peacefully with substantial freedom from animosity.

But give them an excessive quantity of food, more than sufficient to feed them all, and fighting over the envied supply will soon follow. Naturally, the food supply in this case is driven by the natural seasons: would it happen if excessive food is unnaturally supplied in winter?

Either this be a made up story that simply helps describe an idea, or an undeniable truth that express itself in different shapes and forms, another question arises: does competition drive us to scarcity for many, and collaboration towards abundance for all? Or is the other way around due to limited availability of resources? How can we find the balance between these two forces to build a harmonious environment for a free market to flourish?

Can we navigate both complementarily to enable synergy between the two, avoid greed and the desire to overcome others, aiming to a common shared value that benefits everyone?

And if instead of finding this balance, we surf the wave of these cycles of intense competition and invisible collaboration, like the birds in the example do as a consequence of the seasonal cycle?