Since we humans began living in groups of more than 300 people or so, we’ve had a problem with wealth concentration. Unless we take measures to stop it, wealth accumulates in fewer and fewer hands over time, which clashes with our hunter-gatherer instincts for food sharing. This, in turn, has negative effects on the group.
Our society today has this problem in spades, and the pressing question is: why? Many laws have been passed to prevent wealth concentration, and all have failed to do so. That’s because legislation doesn’t address the root of the problem: the powerful instinctual drive of Hunting Hawks to amass as much wealth as they can.
Hunting Hawks want to make the kill.
The scientific basis of the Teska Type System™ shows that the Hunting Hawk type evolved a million years ago on the East African savannah, in an environment where resources were scarce. There, the Hunting Hawk’s predatory cunning and single-minded focus on making the kill helped his family and band survive.
What does a man of this type do in the modern world? He often goes into finance, a field where he can “make a killing.” The man pictured above, Ken Griffin, is an excellent example of a Hunting Hawk. In high school he ran a software business out of his bedroom, and while he was at college he convinced the deans to let him install a satellite dish in his dorm so he could trade stocks more quickly. His focus and drive enabled him to eventually amass a fortune of over $50 billion.
Hunting Hawks like Mr. Griffin are relentless in their pursuit of “game,” which in business means higher profits and greater market share. Since their type evolved under conditions of scarcity, when it was adaptive to provide as much meat as possible, they are driven to obtain as much money as they can, no matter how many billions are in their bank accounts.
These instincts can be problematic today.
On Wall Street, many Hunting Hawks behave just as their evolutionary ancestors did on the plains of Africa. They employ their ancient instincts in setting ingenious traps for competitors, stealthily stalking their commercial “prey,” and sometimes stampeding it off a financial cliff.
Does this mean that Hunting Hawks are inherently bad? No. Their type evolved for good reasons. There’s nothing essentially wrong with a Hunting Hawk.
However, there is something wrong with a social structure in which his instincts can be expressed in destructive ways. Changing the law to prevent him from engaging in predatory activities hasn’t worked as a long-term solution, but redirecting his predatory instincts toward constructive purposes just might.
Let the Hunting Hawk be who he is.
If you tell a Hunting Hawk that his relentless pursuit of wealth is a character flaw or a moral failing, he’ll probably dismiss you as a misguided do-gooder and go about his business. That’s mainly because you’re telling him, “You need to be someone different than who you are.”
Everyone wants to be who they are down deep, and find an outlet for their instinctual drives. So, the way to channel the Hunting Hawk’s hunting instincts toward constructive ends is not to prohibit him from doing business, but to give him a different business goal to reach, a new and challenging target to hit.
If he’s in arbitrage, the Hunting Hawk could compete to win a trading contest, the winner being the trader who generates the greatest returns for a social enterprise. If he’s an investment banker, he could compete in a different contest, one in which the winner funds the company that pays the highest gross and average salaries.
At a conceptual level, taking on these sorts of challenges is what the Hunting Hawk did during the Stone Age: he’s employing his skills to provide ample “meat” to the people who comprise his business “tribe.” Such challenges are bound to resonate with him instinctively. That is, if he’s recognized for achieving good results.
We should recognize his achievements.
Every hunter who shoots a 12-point buck wants to put its antlers on his wall at home. They give silent testimony to his prowess, letting all who see them know that here lives a man who can provide, in a fundamental way, for his family and friends.
In the same way, a Hunting Hawk on Wall Street wants to be recognized for his achievements. He wants a trophy to put on the wall. Right now, this takes the form of his name on the wall of a gallery wing or college building, but why not give him a greater goal to shoot for, a chance for increased prestige?
If he were offered the chance to compete against his peers for a sort of Pioneer Award, Nobel Prize, or Carnegie Medal in socially-beneficial finance, he’d jump at it. Who will be the Alfred Nobel of this generation and establish such a competition?