I was not a typical teenager. Like most teens, I resisted going to sleep at night. But where I differed was in how I responded to getting up in the morning. I woke up early every morning, and the moment I woke up, I leaped out of bed, because I didn’t want to miss anything. Now really, what was I going to miss? My home was Circleville, Ohio, a sleepy small community. Only corn grew there. Yet I was expecting something wonderful and exciting to happen every day, and I wanted to experience it fully.
I think I was born with an abundance mind-set. My natural inclination causes me to think positively, trust people, feel good about myself and others, and enjoy life. I love options, and I believe nearly anything is possible. My abundance capacity is very high.
I recognize that everyone doesn’t think this way. At the other extreme are people who possess a scarcity mind-set. While abundance thinkers believe there is more than enough of everything a person needs in the world, scarcity thinkers believe there is not enough to go around. While abundance people love to say yes, scarcity people feel compelled to say no. These two kinds of people see the world completely differently from one another, and both worlds are equally real to each. What they see, experience, and become is dictated by which world they see.
Over and over, I’ve observed that people’s perspective in this area controls their life today and their potential tomorrow. A belief in scarcity holds people back from reaching their full capacity. A belief in abundance releases them to discover how far they can go. I don’t know why this is true, but I know it is. Your perspective will determine what world you live in, and you can choose your perspective. You determine whether you are an abundance person or a scarcity person.
How you think in this area determines your choices. That’s why you need to focus on changing your thinking about whether or not there’s enough to go around. Abundance thinking encourages you to make choices that will expand your possibilities. Scarcity thinking causes you to make choices that will diminish your potential. Abundance calls out to you, “There’s more than enough.” Scarcity cautions, “Quick, get what you can before it runs out.” Abundance says, “Go and you will find the resources.” Scarcity says, “Hold on to what you have, because there are no more resources.” Abundance says, “Your best days are before you.” Scarcity says, “This is as good as it gets.” How we respond is determined by the voice we allow to speak to us in our minds.
As I said, I have a naturally strong inclination to think abundance. However, there have been three important times in my life when I was tempted to think scarcity instead of abundance. Each time occurred when I was faced with a major decision about the direction I would take my life. When I looked at the change that would be required of me, I wanted to choose what I knew, the thing that was safe, instead of striking out in a new direction where the potential for greater accomplishment lay.
The first time occurred when I was thirty-three years old. At that time I was leading a fantastic church whose growth and health had been recognized by people in that world. I was doing things I was very comfortable doing, I was working with people I loved who wanted me to stay there. But I was offered a chance to take my ideas about leadership outside of the secure environment where I had developed and used them successfully, and try them out on a larger scale, with dozens of other churches.
I was faced with a decision. Should I stay where it was comfortable? Or strike out into a new world? The people who wanted me to stay made the decision very difficult. For two years I weighed both options, but finally my decision came down on the side of abundance. I left the church to train leaders in a different organization.
The second time occurred when I was forty-eight. I was leading a church again, this time in San Diego. Again, the church had grown tremendously, and I loved the people there. And our work had received recognition. An influential author in the church world had identified the congregation as one of the ten most influential churches in America. The founding pastor of the church had stayed there until he retired, and I could have done the same thing.
However, at that time I had an opportunity to take my writing and speaking to a broader audience, including into the business community, but it was only doable if I resigned my position as leader of the church. This transition had the potential to reach many more people than I ever would if I stayed in the pastorate. But there were also great risks, and it caused me to ask many questions. Did I want to leave the positon and prestige of where I was to start over again at the bottom? Could I be successful with a different audience? Would I be able to learn all I needed to know? How long would it take? Would I actually make less of a difference if I made the move?
In the end, I didn’t allow the fears driven by scarcity thinking to overpower the possibilities of abundance thinking, and I resigned my position from the church.
The third temptation came when I was sixty-six. I’ve already hinted at this by telling you the story of the marbles in the jar. Life was good, and I was starting to count down the years to seventy, thinking that at that time I would step away from my organizations. As I told you in the story, Bill Hybels helped to snap me out of that thinking. So did a conversation I had with Mike Hyatt, who told me that I was the face of my organizations. I’m so glad that I “lost my marbles” and chose abundance once again. I can’t imagine living a life in which I’m not working to add value to leaders and make a difference in this world.
Today I think I understand both the scarcity and abundance worlds very clearly. In general, scarcity lives on the other side of “no,” meaning people stay where it’s safe, while abundance lives on the other side of “yes,” meaning they’ll try something new. What does it look like to live on the other side of no?
• It’s limiting—because it directs you away from new opportunities.
• It’s easy—because when you say no, you don’t have to do anything or go anywhere.
• It’s comforting—because it feels familiar. Many people are more fearful of losing the little they do have than they are excited about gaining something they don’t have.
• It’s deceiving—because it appears to be safer, but it’s not. As author Steven Pressfield says, “It’s one thing to lie to ourselves. It’s another thing to believe it.”
• It’s crowded—because that’s where average people live.
What does it look like to live on the other side of yes?
• It’s exciting—because you need creativity to help you figure things out when they’re new. It embodies the philosophy of writer and comedienne Tina Fey, who advised, “Say yes, and you’ll figure it out afterward.”
• It’s enlarging—because abundance creates more abundance. And the more abundance you experience, the greater your potential for high capacity.
• It’s challenging—because new paths are not easy to tread.
• It’s rewarding—because on the other side of yes, you usually find many more yeses.
I realize that no is not always bad and yes is not always good, but most of the time, living a life of no decreases your options, opportunities, and outcomes, while living on the other side of yes increases you and your world. That was true when I changed organizations at thirty-three. I got the opportunity to teach leadership on a wider scale, found out my leadership principles applied to many kinds of leaders in different organizations, and expanded my thinking. It was true when I was forty-eight, because it led to my becoming a best-selling author and expanded my audience ten thousand fold! And it was true at age sixty-six. I would never have gone to Guatemala or Paraguay to help people in those countries, I would not have helped to grow the John Maxwell Team to where it is today. My past yeses are bringing me more options, more opportunities, and more positive outcomes than any other time of my life.
At the most recent John Maxwell Team certification event, I noticed that Paul Martinelli’s team had set up a station where attendees could ask questions and receive information. Behind the table was a huge sign that said, “The answer is YES!” I loved it. That statement says to everyone, “We will find a way.”
That’s how people with high abundance capacity think. They believe the answer is yes. There is a way to move forward. It may not be easy to find. It may not be the first choice, but they believe there is a way. And that’s how I want you to think. I want to help you adopt an abundance mind-set and increase your capacity in this area. Even if you’re a bit of a skeptic, I hope you are willing to give it a try. I hope you’ll take a look at these three ways people of abundance think, and make the choice to embrace them:
Why are people who embrace abundance so readily able to say yes? It’s because they possess high belief in many areas of life:
I’ve always felt that I had more to give than others could see. That was how I felt even when I was young. Others saw my immaturity, my lack of experience, and my frequent fumbles. Many dismissed me. They said I was too young to lead anything. I worked hard to prove them wrong, and I have to admit, when I succeeded it gave me great pleasure. There were plenty of times when I was uncomfortable in what I was doing. But I believed in myself, and that often kept me going when no one else encouraged me. Mark Twain said, “A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.” I was comfortable with who I was. I still am. My personal belief in myself has given me the ability to say yes when others wouldn’t affirm me.
Beliefs drive behavior. Lack of belief, which is a characteristic of scarcity, holds us back. We hesitate, not because we are unable to do something, but because we don’t have confidence in ourselves. My friend, don’t wait for someone else to pick you. Don’t wait for someone to give you permission. You don’t need anyone else to say you are qualified. Believe in yourself! Believe you can.
I’ve mentioned to you that I see everyone as a ten. Some people comment on how unrealistic my belief in others often is. I agree that it can be. However, I still want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Where does that desire come from? It comes from abundance thinking. Even my desire to write this book on capacity comes from that belief. When I tell you that I believe you have the ability to increase your capacity and improve your life, I mean every word of it.
Henry Ford built his business empire off that type of thinking. He said, “I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.” Now that’s belief in other people. It’s easy for scarcity people to tell us it can’t be done. And they love to do it. But history has shown time after time that people can do what others thought was impossible. Every one of those people who achieved the seemingly impossible had an abundance mind-set. You don’t discover new worlds, invent new products, or create new ways of doing things unless you believe there is more!
When people believe in each other, they want the best for each other and expect the best from each other. They bless one another. Professor and author Dallas Willard defines blessing this way: “the projection of good toward someone.” I love that. I want to live that. Don’t you?
In my book Make Today Count I write, “The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda.” What we do every day either makes us or breaks us.
Abundance people seize the moment because they see potential in it. They believe they can do more than they’ve done before. They believe they can perform at a higher level than they have before. They believe they can grow more—and keep growing. This belief not only keeps them going, but it also allows them to be the first to take action. And often those who start first are the winners.
I’m getting older, but I refuse to become an old person. Have you noticed how old people think their generation is the last great one? They look at younger people and predict doom and gloom. That’s happened for a hundred generations. I’m not going to do that! Yes, tomorrow has its challenges. And all youth need to mature. But abundance thinking tells me that tomorrow can be better than today.
I like to think of an abundance mind-set as the Energizer Bunny of our lives. It charges us up with high belief. That high belief gives us high energy. I want to be energized to do worthwhile things and make a difference. Don’t you? It’s your call.
Our perspective is not determined by what we see. It’s determined by how we see, and that comes from who we are. Two people can be in the same situation and see things completely differently. While a scarcity person often looks at a situation and thinks, There’s no way! an abundance person sees the same things and thinks, There’s got to be a better way!
The world is a better place as a result of people whose perspective was shaped by abundance thinking. People thought there was no way to get a room warm other than by using a fireplace. Benjamin Franklin thought there was a better way and invented what we call the Franklin stove. People thought there was no way to get anywhere fast on land except by using horses. James Watt thought there had to be a better way and invented the steam engine. People thought there was no way to talk to people miles away from them. Alexander Graham Bell thought there had to be a better way and invented the telephone. People thought there was no way for people to fly under power. The Wright Brothers thought there had to be a better way and invented the first powered, motorized airplane.
Do I need to go on? Change your perspective to one of abundance from one of scarcity, and you open the door to innovation and positive change, not only for yourself, but also for others.
The final characteristic of abundance people that I want to discuss is generosity. When most people think generosity, we usually think about giving money to charity. While that is truly a mark of generosity, the generosity that comes from abundance goes way beyond that.
There are other kinds of generosity that have nothing to do with money. These include giving people a chance, giving others the benefit of the doubt, and giving others a reason to want to work with you. An abundance person can be generous by giving others opportunities, giving them the resources and information they need to do their jobs well, giving them the credit when they are successful, and giving them grace when they make mistakes. What I’m really talking about here is generosity of spirit.
Generosity is a word that comes out of the Latin word generosus, meaning of noble birth. It was associated with members of the aristocracy who, by virtue of their privileges and inherited wealth, were expected to give to others of lesser standing than themselves. All of us are in better places than someone else in life. To those people, we should be generous. And if you’re a leader, you need to understand that by virtue of your position and the privileges it brings, you should be generous toward the people you lead. I wish all leaders held themselves to this high standard, though not all do. The leaders who bring an abundance mind-set to their leadership responsibilities can increase the positive impact they make on their teams and organizations.
Some people worry that if they give too much of what they have, they will run short themselves. But I would say the opposite is true. The more you give, the more you get. And that just helps you to become more generous. You can see this in action when you smile at others. What happens when you do that? You usually receive a smile back. And that just makes you want to smile more. The more you help other people, the more they usually want to help others. And that motivates you to help even more. The more you love people, the more love you receive—and want to give others. That’s what I call the Abundance Paradox. The more you give, the more you have to give—and want to give.
Abundance people don’t run out by giving. The opposite is true. They sow into the lives of others and receive a great harvest as a result. Without a question, my greatest return on investment in life has been believing and investing in other people. That’s why my daily to-do list is filled with things I want for others. I totally agree with my friend Kevin Myers, who says, “We should want more for people than we want from people.” Generous people are always interested in increasing the lives of those around them. And people will always move toward anyone who increases them and away from anyone who makes them feel like less.
I believe you can step out of the scarcity world and become an abundance person, even if you grew up feeling like there’s not enough. Why do I say that? Because I’ve seen people who started out with a scarcity mind-set choose to become people of abundance. One of those people was Kevin Myers, whom I just quoted. I’ve mentored Kevin for twenty years. He says that one of the most important things I taught him was to change his mind-set to abundance.
Kevin says, “I used to think that life was like a pie. There were only so many slices, so you had to try to get your piece while you could. John taught me that if you run out of pie, you just go back into the kitchen and bake another one. That was a completely different kind of thinking from what I grew up with. But now I embrace it.”
If you’re like most people, in your heart you’d like to believe in abundance. My advice to you is follow your heart. It was created for abundance. Talk to yourself. Say aloud, “I believe there is more than enough.” That’s a small step in the right direction, toward abundance. And sometimes the smallest step in the right direction becomes the biggest step in your life.
1. When faced with an opportunity, are you naturally a yes person or a no person? If abundance usually means saying yes, what can you do to prompt yourself to say yes more often?
2. Belief in abundance begins with a person’s belief in him- or herself. How would you rate your self-belief? Is it high, medium, or low? What must you do to raise it and put yourself in a position to embrace a stronger abundance mind-set?
3. What are you currently looking at in your life and saying, “There’s no way.” Pick something important to you. Tell yourself, “There’s got to be a better way.” Then start brainstorming ideas for how you can move forward positively.