Week #17 (Apr.22-28, 2019)

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Week #17 (Apr.22-28, 2019) - Abundance vs. Scarcity Mentality

(a tad long, but worth it)A few months ago, my brother had a small party at his home….don’t think of a raving party. More like a hang out, chill, eat, relax, type of thing. It was a really chill atmosphere where both family and close friends were present.As always happens in these type settings, my brother and I inevitably ended up reclined in his living room discussing where we are in our respective businesses, as well as plans for the future. My family is full of entrepreneurial spirits with this one brother in finance, another in real estate, my sister in furniture, and I in….well you know.Anyways, we naturally spoke with passion about wins, lessons (not losses), and just generally what we believed we could achieve in our respective marketplaces. All the while we were speaking, a friend was also on one of the couches listening in on our conversation. At some point, she interrupted to say, “See, that’s the thing with you Nigerians. You guys just go and try stuff! You’re willing to try and most times you end up succeeding”. My brother and I cracked up. Then she went on to say, “In my family, I’m told to just go to school and get a job. No point risking it. It’s really hard out there and more businesses fail than succeed”. I’m paraphrasing what she said, but that isn’t too far off from her actual words.That got me wondering why despite having a high value for education, my family isn’t as risk-averse as many others. Why do we see opportunity where others see obstacles? That’s what I want to talk about today.There is something to be said about the qualification she gave when she said “…you Nigerians”, but I won’t touch on that particular cultural distinctive in this post, as that would take us on a tangent. Much can be said about that, so I’ll leave that for a future article. At any rate, the difference between my family’s thinking and our friend’s can be summed up as “Abundance vs. Scarcity” mentality.Imagine there’s a food famine. The natural human response would be to hoard, ration, and be extremely cautious with regard to not just how much you eat, but with everything you do in general. Every decision will come down to a calculus that asks, “Is there enough food to justify this action?” You want to go hunting? You’ll ask yourself “Is eating this meal to gain enough energy to go hunting worth the risk of not succeeding? Should I just hunker down instead, conserve my energy, and thus my need for food?”. Chances are, you’ll opt to hunker down instead. So you see how in a scarcity context, the prospect of gaining more is in itself stifled by the current lack.Now imagine a land lush with ample provisions. The forests are full of wildlife, the land is ripe with produce and the waters are teeming with life. In this context, the human will move with confidence knowing that there is enough out there to meet their needs. You want to hunt, then go hunting. The human will still be cautious knowing there are dangers out there, wild animals for example. But the general attitude will be one of exploration and discovery. Note that in abundance, there’s a risk of greed and waste. In fact, it will likely happen due to human sin. However, even in the midst of that, there is still an abundance of opportunities. Opportunities to enjoy and steward the land, as well as opportunities to help stem the greed and waste. The point is, in the abundant world, we see opportunity.And in there lays the heart of the matter. A scarcity mentality sees the worlds as lacking, as not enough. Conversely, the abundance mentality sees the world as abounding with enough for literally every person. Although my analogies dealt with the natural environment, I’m not specifically talking about that. By abundance, I just mean opportunity. Many people think of the world as being a scarce place, when in reality, it is abundant in its provisions. Let me illustrate. My friends was scared to launch her idea because she wasn’t sure it would work. When she asked us what makes us so bold, we broke it down very simply. Instagram has 1 BILLION people who actively use the platform every month. Of that 1B active mostly users, more than 500 MILLION people who use the platform EVERY SINGLE DAY. 10% of 500M is 50M. 10% of that is 5M. 10% of that is 500,000. Another 10% of that is 50,000. In case you lost track, that’s 0.01% of Instagram’s active daily users. Now if you got those 50, 000 people to spend……………………(wait for it)……….……….$1 on your product……………………(wait for it)……………….IN ONE YEAR, that’s $50, 000. That’s just $1 in an entire year. By any measure, $50,000 is a pretty good annual income. And remember this very conservative estimation was calculated not off the 1 BILLION monthly users, but only on the daily. Also, that’s to say nothing of the users on other platforms like Facebook and Youtube. In fact, there are even other “smaller” platforms that still have millions of active users. Then there’s the non-digital world…yes it still exists 😂. Real everyday people who live most of their lives offline. They still consume products and interact with the world in other ways. The world is so big and has so many people (~7 Billion) that it allows for endless niche markets to exist that still have a substantial number of potential clients/customers. Even if we reduce the 50,000 people estimation to 10,000 people, chances are there are 10,000 people in all of the earth who are wiling to contribute $5/year to you.Now I’m not saying it’s a simple thing to get 10,000 people to spend money on you or your product. But I use that to illustrate the possibility.  Most people don’t think like this, and thus are immediately stifled from pursuing their dreams. THIS IS HOW MY FAMILY THINKS! The world is big enough for ALL OF US.In no way am I suggesting achieving success is easy. Far from it! Casting off on your own will probably be the hardest thing you will ever have to do. You might actually fail from time to time. Finding your 10,000, 50,000 (or whatever number you decide on) will stretch you. But what I’m saying is, so long as you see the world as small and limited, you will often not start to begin with. Conversely, the more you see the world as the abundant tapestry that it is, you will always be empowered to at the very least try.Also note, the abundance vs. scarcity mentality doesn’t only apply to entrepreneurship. It applies to EVERYTHING. Trying to get into college/university? Scarcity says, “There are so many applicants but there are limited admission spots”. Abundance says “There are so many schools in the world. There must be one that will accept me”. Trying to find a job? Scarcity says, “I’ve applied so much and haven’t gotten a call back”. Abundance says, “Maybe I can widen my search to other cities or even countries”. Want to travel? Scarcity says, “It’s so expensive, I don’t have the money or time”. Abundance says, “Who do I know in my network who has done it, that I can learn from? Maybe I can team up with some friends to help reduce the cost”. Trying to make friends? Scarcity says, “I’m so shy and socially awkward”. Abundance says, “There are 7 BILLIONS people on earth, I’m sure I’m not the only person who feels shy, is socially awkward and struggles to make friends. Let me find those people and we can be awkward together”. And so on, and so forth. The point is this; There is enough for all of us.Now, I realize there are those who are in a genuinely difficult position due to factors out of their control. They were dealt a sour hand over which they had no agency. If that is you, please do not interpret this as me saying JUST PULL YOURSELF UP BY YOUR BOOTSTRAPS! Never that! It is not my intention to be insensitive to those in such a position, and while I cannot speak to everybody’s situation, I simply encourage all of us to just look around with the aim and expectation of finding opportunities. You might be surprised to see it’s been there all along.Finally, I can’t talk about abundance and scarcity without highlighting both the need for properly stewarding the abundance we’ve been blessed with, and the rampant injustices that exist in the world as a result of poor stewardship. As a Christian, I believe we as humans have a responsibility to sustainably harvest the natural world (Gen. 1). Greed is rampant in the world and I’m not convinced we’ve been great stewards of the planet. Then there is also the fact that millions worldwide still suffer, die even, from things like poverty and hunger, not because there isn’t enough food for the world, but because of deep, long lasting systemic injustices. We will give an account to God for this also. In the meantime, even amidst these human atrocities lay opportunities for creatively minded, socially conscious individuals to help reverse the damage. Like I said, the world is abundant in opportunity.Until next week, #KnowItsRealP.S. What do you think? Where do you land on the Abundance vs. Scarcity line? Why?P.P.S. NEW MUSIC COMING SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Follow me on Socials (below) & Subscribe to my Youtube page (and turn on notifications), as I'll be releasing more videos in the coming weeks & months.

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