Survival comes to those who wait

Survival of the fittest is a phrase often used in evolution. It lays out the laws of life which maintain that those best suited to their environment will thrive and endure while others who may not be as well-equipped will fall away and eventually die out.

Often seen as the law of the jungle, it is also a phrase that can be applied with great effect to this jungle of a concrete kind in which we all operate.

As maxims go, "survival of the fittest" takes on a somewhat discomfiting tone when applied to business and economics, implying that those who can't cut it will, figuratively speaking, die out. That is, however, the reality in which we find ourselves today.

In this environment you can compare the availability of credit to businesses and individuals to the availability of water or food to animals.

When credit is harder to come by, a bank balance which does turn a profit, or at the very least break even at the end of the month, becomes more and more difficult to sustain.

In previous years, when finance was plentiful and cheap and almost anyone was allowed to rack up thousands, millions or even billions of dollars of it, a business could continue even when the books didn't balance.

Now that many lenders have found that their own cash flows have dried up, debt, or the availability of it, is far harder to come by.

On that basis the weak are soon weeded out as revenues disappear and creditors come knocking, while the strong will continue. This is a cleansing of the inefficient that happens naturally in the animal and plant worlds, when, for example, a bushfire burns off tangled growth to make way for more sustainable shoots.

It's a hard situation made worse by the fact that while we talk in abstracts about business and economics, the real losers are as always the small people who lose their jobs or their homes.

Unfortunately, though many of us were not responsible for the financial trouble in which we find ourselves, unless you live on the moon, we are all affected by it.

The economic mismanagement that has caused these problems are on a global scale and will surely be considered the worst in history when there comes a time for reflection on these years with the benefit of perspective and hindsight.

There are, however, positive points to bear in mind. Countries that were managed better over the last few years will emerge from the recession earlier.

With the exception perhaps of some high-end real estate, Dubai has not promoted the proliferation of toxic waste seen in other countries. In time we will see that the wild speculators, who push the costs up, will leave the emirate, leaving the way clear for a levelling out of property prices and a new era of sustainability.

Many have been forced to leave through situations beyond their control, while others may be contemplating a return to their home countries. My advice would be to reflect a little longer on the economic climate elsewhere before jumping ship.

The grass may seem greener over the fence until you actually get there and realise the bushfire is yet to hit. Dubai has a different offering and its recovering economy is less encumbered by the stressors in other countries such as easy credit, derivatives and sub-prime mortgages.

The fittest may survive best, but there is also another maxim: All things come to those who wait.

The writer is CEO of Better Homes LLC.