Having an Abundance Mindset can transform your life, your team, and your business.
Despite our inherent “scarcity mindset,” the world today is rapidly moving towards abundance. Exponential tech like AI, biotech, robotics, and VR are quickly dematerializing, demonetizing, and democratizing products and services.
Things that used to only be available to the richest and most elite are now available to almost anyone—anywhere in the world. A child in Zimbabwe can use an AI chatbot or Google to find information they want or even video conference with someone on the other side of the world—for free.
Many things we paid millions of dollars for just a few decades ago are now available on our smartphones at no cost.
But there’s a problem.
Our minds evolved during a world of scarcity hundreds of thousands of years ago, and most people remain trapped in unhealthy scarcity thinking.
In a world of scarcity, there’s a limited pie. If your neighbor gets a slice, then you get a smaller slice. But when you have an Abundance Mindset, rather than slicing the pie into thinner and thinner slices, you create more pies.
This is the future that exponential leaders enable, and it’s true across nearly every sector—whether people realize it or not.
Remember: creating a world of abundance isn’t about creating a world of luxury, it’s about creating a world of possibility.
In today’s blog, the second in a series based on my forthcoming book Scaling Abundance, I’ll discuss why your mindset is so important—especially if you’re an entrepreneur or leader.
Let’s dive in…
Your Mindset is Everything
Think about the most successful leaders on our planet: from Mahatma Gandhi, Elon Musk, and Steve Jobs to Martin Luther King, Malala Yousafzai, and Mother Teresa.
Now, ask yourself: “What made them so successful?”
What do you think? How would you answer? Was it their technology, their funding, their friends, or was it their mindset?
When I asked the question to my Twitter followers, the first 1,000 responses matched my personal expectations:
I agree.
I believe that your mindset is the most important asset you possess.
It’s the filter through which you see the world—it determines how you respond to opportunities and challenges, and how you navigate the tsunami of accelerating technologies coming your way.
Your mindset determines how you spend your time, who you spend your time with, what decisions you make, and where you invest your resources.
If you agree with me, then the next questions to ask yourself are:
But before answering those questions, it helps to understand how mindsets work, and how they are created.
The human brain is the most extraordinary and powerful system in our known universe.
Coming in at about 3 to 4 lb. (1.3 to 1.8 kg.), the human brain is a collection of some 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion synaptic connections running on just 12 watts of power (less than a dim lightbulb!).
Our brains are neural networks that represent all we know, how we think, our memories, and our mindsets.
The term “neural network” may sound familiar since it has been discussed in the context of artificial intelligence for decades.
Inspired by the brain, AI-related neural networks are a type of machine learning process, called deep learning, that uses interconnected nodes or neurons in a layered structure that resembles the human brain.
Today, AI scientists train a neural net in the same way that we would train a dog, a child, or even ourselves.
These neural nets are trained by being shown example after example, over and over again. Want to train a neural net to recognize a cat? Show the net thousands of pictures of various cats and in doing so, the neural net learns to recognize that cats have ears, fur, a tail, and four legs.
But if you then show the same neural net a picture of a dog, the AI will tell you that the dog is a cat. It doesn’t know any better. It’s only been trained to see cats.
The same is true for our brains, which are also neural nets. If you constantly feed your brain with negative perspectives, your outlook will be negative. You won’t know any better.
In the same way that someone who cares deeply about their health and longevity is careful what they eat (no sugar, whole plants, etc.), a person who cares deeply about their mindset is careful what they read, what they watch, and the conversations they have!
The conclusions we draw and the actions we take are only as good as the data we’ve used to shape our minds.
Why This Matters
There are two key dimensions of an Abundance Mindset: abundance vs. scarcity and optimism vs. fear.
Nothing is more fundamental to an abundance mindset than how you see the world in these two dimensions.
Mastering this will bring you greater fulfillment and less stress. It will change how and where you see opportunity.
If you’re an entrepreneur, an Abundance Mindset will inspire the best employees to work for you, while visionary brands, partners, and investors will want to work with you.
Just think of the sort of people whose company you enjoy.
Would you rather spend your day with someone who thinks the world is falling apart and sees danger around every corner?
Or with someone who believes that the passionate and determined human mind can overcome almost every challenge?
In our third blog in this series, we’ll look at why we’re wired for pessimism.