scarcity : The Art of Non-Conformity

Abundance vs. Scarcity, “Fun Shopping Cart Messages” Edition

Greetings from Frankfurt airport... or actually the skies between Europe and Africa, as I should be southbound to Equatorial Guinea when this goes out. Let the record show I'm in the back of the Lufthansa aircraft on this trip, with a bonus “wait-on-the-plane-an-extra-two-hours” stopover in Abuja. Sometimes even travel ninjas go long-haul Economy Class, when no upgrades are available.

This is the Sunday Store Update, where I look at some brief news about the business side of AONC ...

Work

Expanding the Pie

It’s time for a confession: lately I’ve been stuck in a mindset of scarcity. Instead of focusing on abundance, I’ve been thinking about petty things. Naturally, I don’t like this, but I’m not sure how to fix it.

One of my heroes is Dean Karnazes, the Ultramarathon Man who runs 200-mile relay races as a solo competitor, runs 24-hours straight on treadmills in Times Square, and generally just runs a lot. Like anything else like this, some people “get it” and some people don’t.

I recently listened to a podcast interview with Dean where he was asked about some recent criticism. Apparently some people are upset that other people think he is awesome. Instead of responding with “WTF?” – a response I would have found suitable -- Dean gave a very cordial and thoughtful answer:

I’m not trying to take more of the pie for myself. I’m trying to make the pie larger for everyone.