Abundance mindset for indies

It’s the new year on the lunar calendar! For folks who know, happy Lunar/Chinese New Year! As usual, there’s lots of well wishing that happens during this time, especially along fortune and abundance. That got me thinking about abundance versus scarcity mindsets for us indie solopreneurs.

An abundance mindset is when you believe there are plenty of resources for everyone. A scarcity mindset is when you believe resources are limited.

A scarcity mindset causes hyperfixation, leads to short-term coping instead of long-term problem-solving, and increases jealousy and stress. For a more abundant mindset, advocate for collaboration, practice gratitude, notice automatic thoughts and give when you can.

Source

I think I’ve always been more intuitively on the side of abundance, but the past 3 years of true external scarcity had swung me over to the other side. It’s so true about short-term coping, because when resources and opportunities are truly scarce, I grabbed at short term shortcuts. I launched a web design service which I thought could make some good cash. I set up accounts on Fiverr and Upwork for that, thinking it’ll help. But I never liked that kind of work. In the end, it didn’t work out. Unsurprisingly. I was constantly stressed and anxious that I won’t be able to feed my family, and will have to go back to a 9-to-5.

Now that business seems to be getting back to more pre-pandemic levels, I’m now trying to caliberate and be more moderate and balanced. How does an abundance mindset look like for indie solopreneurs?

• Give give give give give give give give give give ask. Giving 10x before asking once. I think it’s hard to be giving till it hurts when you’re in scarcity mindset. Being helpful to a fault works if when you believe it’ll all come back. And not just to paying customers, but non-customers and even fellow indies.
• Don’t hoard money for personal gain but reinvest it back into the business or product to make it grow. I struggled with this a bit. When you don’t have enough, it’s easy to want to keep everything for yourself. But oftentimes you need to spend money to earn more money – that’s a key part of an abundance mindset I feel.
• Sharing experiences, lessons, and ideas. Being transparent about struggles and difficulties. Building in public. Sharing important business metrics on open startup pages. I think it takes an abundance mindset to be able to be radically transparent and open. If you’re constantly worried about people copying your product, concerned that there’s a power/information asymmetry if people could pry into your metrics but you can’t see their’s, then that’s more scarcity mindset.
• Constantly being intellectually honest and taking ownership over problems and lack of progress instead of externalizing, i.e. blaming others/competitors and external factors. There’s certainly elements in any market situation that we cannot control. Trolls, haters and copycats will do what they will. Competitors won’t let up. Even if it’s not our fault and we tried our best, practising an abundance mindset means we focus on what we can do, and will achieve. No victim mentality. Optimism is an attribute of abundance.
• Feeling inspired and excited about other people’s achievements. Anytime I feel jealous of others, I know I’ve fallen too far down the pit of scarcity. Because someone else’s win doesn’t mean I will or have to lose. Oftentimes we’re so different in product or market, it doesn;t even make sense to compare. So why the jealousy? That’s often just scarcity-induced anxiety, stress, impatience, frustration speaking.
• Feeling hopeful and excited about my future. I found that when I’m in scarcity mindset, I look at the immediate short term. I get frustrated by my lack of progress. I get fixated on what’s not working. My mind feels hazy, I’m disorganised, scattered and inefficient. I feel impatient why I’m not there yet. I compare and feel unhappy. But when I’m in abundance mode, I feel excited and optimistic about the future. I feel grateful for how far along I’ve come. I can look back at my journey and appreciate that I’ve done a lot. I’m thrilled by what’s already working, and eager to pursue opportunities I smell. There’s more clarity in the mind, on what I need to do and not do. I feel effective in passion and purpose. And I can see that if I keep with my trajectory, things will turn out fine. The sky’s the limit.
• Going all in and focusing on one thing for me is a sign of being tunnel-visioned by scarcity. That focus tends to blind me to real opportunities that arise on the side that can actually help me reach my goals of financial, time and location freedom, but I was too fixated on making my current vision of success come true that I fail to see that there’s other ways to that success. When in abundance mindset, I see that I’m willing to try many small bets, keep what works, drop what doesn’t quickly. I no longer hoard or hold on too tightly. I play, have fun, experiment and iterate, and let go without much worry.
• The body keeps the score. When in scarcity mode, I tighten up. I grab on to everything. I hunker down too much. I start to develop ailments that are natural consequences of all that closing up. I gain weight because I don’t move as much and because I want to HODL. I get super stressed and anxious and it shows up on all manner of weird pains and aches in the body. I get ill more frequently, I don’t exercise as much, I over-work. In time, these develop into bigger, badder health conditions. All symptoms of scarcity mindset.
• When in abundance, I naturally seek to master things. I want to improve and grow in mastery in skills of indie solopreneurship. I lean into the discomfort of doing things which I’m not naturally good at (e.g. marketing, ads), and try to find ways to enjoy the learning process. When in scarcity, I look for shortcuts and hacks in everything, often at the expense of near-term future. I mash together products, work-around stuff that doesn’t feel good but “will do for now”. There’s a fine line between working out of desperation versus doing just enough to launch a MVP.

What other ways can you practise an abundance mindset?