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Foreword, by Charles Darwin

Evolution is a fact, not a theory.

As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.

If we look to long enough periods of time, geology plainly declares that all species have changed; and they have changed in the manner which my theory requires, for they have changed slowly and in a graduated manner.

I can see no limit to this power, in slowly and beautifully adapting each form to the most complex relations of life.

Companies that can evolve slowly and constantly will triumph.

Natural selection can act only by taking advantage of slight successive variations; she can never take a leap, but must advance by the shortest and slowest steps.

No winning strategy lasts forever.

No fixed law seems to determine the length of time during which any single species or any single genus endures.

And most companies will disappear.

More individuals are born than can possibly survive. A grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die, -- which variety or species shall increase in number, and which shall decrease, or finally become extinct.

The good news is that you can teach old dogs new tricks.

Our oldest cultivated plants, such as wheat, still often yield new varieties; our oldest domesticated animals are still capable of rapid improvement or modification.

The bad news is that competition is cutthroat.

The struggle almost invariably will be most severe between the individuals of the same species, for they frequent the same districts, require the same food, and are exposed to the same dangers.

Companies that zoom have a competitive advantage.

The modified descendants of any one species will succeed by so much the better as they become more diversified in structure, and are thus enabled to encroach on places occupied by other beings.

Alas, there are no guarantees.

But which groups will ultimately prevail, no man can predict; for we well know that many groups, formerly most extensively developed, have now become extinct.

People have trouble embracing these facts because they're hard to see in real time.

The chief cause...is that we are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps...The mind cannot possibly grasp the full meaning of the term of a hundred million years; it cannot add up and perceive the full effects of many slight variations, accumulated during an almost infinite number of generations.

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