ANCIENT HUNTERS IN MODERN BUSINESS

      There are so many apparent similarities between our ancestral hunters and the modern day business person that it begs the question, Are we genetically predisposed for specific behaviors within the context of society? 

     Tim Noakes, (2001) in his book, The Lore of Running proposes that the love of running long distances, such as marathons, is an inherited trait. “Perhaps we are the direct descendants of that group of humans - the ancestral hunters - who outran their prey during many hours of pursuit.” It is reasonable to propose that successful ancestral hunter possessed genetic traits that allowed him advantages over other hunters? Taking this line of thought a step further, suppose that the success traits of the ancestral hunter are passed genetically to the modern day descendants that use similar traits in a hunt for profitability in business.

 

     The successful ancestral hunter perpetuated a strong gene pool. From an evolutionary perspective the more successful hunters were married to stronger, healthier, and perhaps younger women. Anthropologist Dr. Kristen Hawkes (2001) in her study of the modern hunter gatherer tribes theorized that our ancestral hunters passed on stronger genetic traits, “Men with better hunting reputations are married to women who have children faster and have more surviving children (Blurton Jones et al., 1997; Hawkes, 2001).
 

     We now realize that genetic traits have a stronger influence over success than we once thought to be the case. A British study of 609 pairs of identical twins and 657 non identical twins found that the identical twins were 48% more likely to start businesses.  Professor Tim Spector (2006) director of the Twin Research Unit, said: "This relatively high heritability suggests the importance of considering genetic factors to explain why some people are entrepreneurial, while others are not. The study said little with regard to the success of twins in business, but now we have evidence to suggest that genetic traits are an important consideration in determining business success.