Scarcity versus abundance

In one paragraph

A scarcity view treats business as a fixed pie — anyone else's gain is your loss. An abundance view assumes the pie can grow, which changes what you are willing to do.

Scarcity produces zero-sum behaviour: reluctance to refer work, difficulty being pleased for competitors, hoarding information, negotiating every deal as though it were the last. It is not irrational — some markets really are fixed — but it becomes a default rather than an assessment.

Abundance assumes there is enough recognition, profit and opportunity to go round, and behaves accordingly: refers freely, shares what it knows, looks for the arrangement that works for both sides.

The commercial effect

It shows up most visibly in referrals and in negotiation. Businesses that refer work they cannot do receive work back. Those that squeeze every supplier to the last penny find nobody goes out of their way for them when it matters.

This is Covey's fourth habit — think win-win — with the mindset that has to sit underneath it.

How to actually use it

• Refer one piece of work you cannot properly do this month, with a real introduction. Watch what comes back over a year.
• In your next negotiation, look for the term that costs you little and is worth a lot to them. That is where abundance is actually practical rather than merely pleasant.

Where it breaks down

• Some situations genuinely are zero-sum, and treating a fixed-price negotiation as abundant is how you give margin away for nothing.
• It is easier to hold an abundance view when you are not worried about payroll, which makes it partly a function of circumstance rather than character.

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