On Abundance and Scarcity

I’ve been particularly curious about the concept of abundance and the concept of scarcity. Why do people act in a zero-sum manner? One possible reason is that they believe that opportunities are scarce. I hear the regular advice: think abundance, don’t think small. There are innumerable opportunities in the world, and I completely agree.

But when you take such an idea too far—that there are always ideas and there are always opportunities in the world—then it’s also easier to procrastinate, get lazy, or lack urgency. It’s a known fact that certain resources in life are scarce: our attention, our energy. Yet we sometimes waste life because we forget how short it is.

So I began to ask myself: how do I think abundantly and still act with urgency, drive, and hunger?

I found the answer in nature while watching David Attenborough’s documentary Planet Earth. He was talking about a leopard hunting an impala. It was interesting because the impalas move in herds. There’s an abundance of impalas, yet the leopard singles out a particular impala that it wants to hunt and pursues this impala with all it has.

The leopard just saw the herd. It just saw an abundance of impalas. But when the leopard hunts, it singles out one impala and hunts as if that is all it has. When it catches the impala, it eats. When it doesn’t, it recuperates, strategises, and heads out again to get an impala.

It’s the same thing with lions. When lions hunt zebras or buffaloes, they see an abundance, yet they single out one and focus all their attention on that one. The wild dogs in Africa employ the same strategy.

I found that quite interesting because there’s an abundance of food, there’s an abundance of opportunity, there’s an abundance of ideas, and there’s an abundance of resources. Yet they instinctively know they have to focus their attention on one and give it all they’ve got.

What’s also fascinating is how they treat failure. They rest, learn, recalibrate, strategise, and hunt until they succeed. They waste no time with regret, guilt, shame, or embarrassment.

I think we as humans should learn a whole lot from that. Yes, there’s an abundance of opportunity, but we have to pick one opportunity and drill down on it. Go all in like it’s all we’ve got, exhaust it, and see what comes out of it. If it works, congratulations. If it doesn’t, we learn and go again. We take advantage of every experience.

I believe there is an abundance of opportunity. There will always be ways to make life better, there will always be problems, and there will always be ideas. But the harvest belongs to the one who acts.

So start on those ideas of yours. Life is short, and our attention is scarce, and that’s a good thing.

It’s been a while.