Humans usually measure their success in terms of their achievements. We can tally their performance in education, social circles, wealth or professional rank.

Businesses view their position in the market using sales revenue, profit margins, scale of growth, employee count. In both cases, the story is the same, success is measured in surplus.

In short, success is measured in increase. Comparison is the trigger to do better.

But what if this story is incomplete?

Nature, our oldest teacher, seeks validation from no one. Speed is not her priority, and strength is found instead by longevity, adaptability, resilience and harmony.

For instance, a coral reef is self-sustaining, living in symbiosis with other organisms living in it and driving the food web into a cycle of nutrients for creatures to feed on. It thrives in symbiosis, recycling nutrients through a cycle that feeds and sustains life across scales.

Mangroves, with their dense root systems, absorb shocks from storms and tsunamis, not by resisting, but by flexing, dispersing, and regenerating.

Nature’s definition of success is balance, reciprocity, and endurance.

Can humans find their place in such a cycle, by measuring their ability to be resilient against challenges through tapping into their existing resources, while finding a way to replace it?

Can we learn to measure like her?

For centuries, humans have designed systems that reward extraction and short-term gain. Agricultural practices strip soil of its nutrients. Lands are handed to developers with little regard for the ecosystems they displace.

Our economies chase speed, scale, and measurable growth, often at the cost of resilience, equity, and life itself.

At Good Life X, we believe this old story of success has expired. The challenges of our time, climate disruption, resource scarcity, social inequities, require us to rethink what progress means.

The question is not “How fast can we grow?” but “How deeply can we endure? How harmoniously can we regenerate?”

From extraction to regeneration

Through our programmes and the Thrive Canvas, a regenerative business tool we created in Sri Lanka, we have seen first-hand that companies can shift their compass.

When they align profit with purpose, embed reciprocity into their supply chains, and invest in regeneration of communities and ecosystems, resilience follows.

We’ve worked with small and medium enterprises that began measuring not only sales or margins, but also the biodiversity of their farms, the wellbeing of their farmers, the cycles of waste and energy within their systems. These are not “soft” indicators. They are the foundation of businesses that will endure when extractive models collapse.

Nature shows us that resilience is about having resources to tap into and the systems to restore them. Businesses, too, can design for resilience:

• Diversifying revenue streams with the wellbeing of the planet at the core, like forests diversify species.
• Building trust networks like mycelium connects roots underground.
• Restoring what they use, so cycles remain unbroken.

A softer, more humane approach

Nature’s cycles are unhurried. The seasons change in due time, causing all other natural cycles to shift and synchronise with altering winds, rain, sea levels and sun.

The animals know when and where to feed, reproduce, and seek shelter.

Plants and trees understand when it is their time to grow, to bear fruit and to decay.

Success, in this lens, is not about being ahead of the curve. It is about knowing when to act, when to rest, when to give, and when to renew.

Humans, too, can adopt this wisdom. A leader’s success might be measured not in titles held, but in how well they create balance in their teams, how intentionally they steward resources, and how resiliently they adapt to shocks.

An economy’s success could be redefined not in GDP growth, but in the health of its soils, rivers, communities, and creativity.

The provocation

We are living in a time when clinging to outdated metrics is not just short-sighted, it is dangerous. Measuring only by speed and surplus has brought us to planetary limits. The future belongs to those willing to adopt nature’s metrics: Balance, reciprocity, and regeneration.

At Good Life X, we invite businesses, communities, and leaders to take this leap. To reimagine success not as endless increase, but as the ability to endure, adapt, and thrive in harmony with the systems that sustain us.

It is time to seek beyond a simplified sustainability strategy and standalone CSR initiatives. We believe businesses are the vessels to create impactful change, and it must start now.

It will take courage to unlearn the habits of extraction. But coral reefs, mangroves, and forests remind us daily: Resilience is possible, abundance is natural, and thriving is what life is designed to do.

Factories can become circular, the environment can be utilised efficiently and sustainably, local and rural communities can become entrepreneurs and stewards of economic growth, businesses can operate for the good and not only for profit, and a system of regeneration can emerge.

Are you ready to make that call? Contact us at ‘connect@goodlifex.com’ for more information.

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.)