When Everyone Else Opts for Scarcity, Choose Abundance

I have been replaying over and over a question I was asked a few weeks ago.

I had just concluded a presentation I had given at the WISE Symposium in upstate New York, and during the breakout, I reviewed five core principles that extraordinary leaders demonstrate.

The final pillar? Choose abundance over scarcity.

I was referencing a model put forth in Stephen Covey’s best-selling business book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In the book, Covey contends that by nature, our minds are hard-wired to be predisposed to either seeing the world through an abundance or scarcity lens.

The abundance mentality “flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security,” argues Covey. At the highest level, those who operate out of a place of abundance believe there is an endless amount of pizza coming out of the oven. In other words, there is always enough to go around — enough success, resources, ideas, money, relationships, etc.

Conversely, those who subscribe to a scarcity mentality compete for available resources. It is a mentality that Covey refers to as “the zero-sum paradigm of life.” These individuals believe if you take a slice of pizza, there is one less for me to eat.

I implored the audience — full of powerhouse business leaders, executives, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs — to choose abundance if they want to be remarkable leaders. I encouraged them to have deep-rooted confidence in the fact that the pizza never stops coming out of the oven. Against this backdrop, I asked them to commit to sharing more authentically, celebrating in the success of others and being more open and trusting.

Then the question came: “Carrie, do you have any tips for dealing with people who choose scarcity when you choose abundance?”

I smiled because this attendee had given voice to a question I had found myself asking recently.

And since. For the past few weeks, I can’t stop thinking about this question, replaying my own experiences with this stark dichotomy of mindsets and reading rigorously on the topic. Though there is not a prescriptive step-by-step process we can follow to help others see the abundance, I do think there are three things we can keep in mind...

**Carrie Majewski originally wrote this blog for RI Inno as a guest post. To read the rest of the original post, click here.**