When I started my trek into business I did a lot of stuff “normal” people might think funny: read self help books, listen to motivational tapes, do affirmations, stuff like that. I had to de-program myself of a lot of dangerous anti-success programming installed in me growing up.
One thing I’d hear a lot about in these tapes and success-oriented trainings was scarcity vs abundance mindset.
For a while, I had a hard time understanding what that meant. I had a very bad relationship with money growing up, and the blinders I had on since I was a kid prevented me from understanding a pretty simple concept:
There is a lot of money out there. It’s also your duty to go get it (more on that later).
Think about this: US GDP is ~17 trillion dollars in 2014. That means every day 46.5 BILLION dollars of new value is produced in the United States. 46.5 billion dollars created by the citizens of our country. Every day. Day after day. New value added to what we already have.
It’s like how the universe expanding infinitely. There’s plenty of money out there for everybody.
Internalize this fact. Make some money, spread it around. Give it away. Give it to causes and charities you support, street artists, people down on their luck, and to causes and charities you want to support.
This kind of giving reinforces good financial programming. When you can give some money away and feel good about it, it makes it easier to ask for it and get it. If you are stingy with money it’s very easy to project that mentality onto your patients, and if you think your customers are stingy they are gonna be stingy.
I used to operate from a scarcity mindset. When I was young I never had a lot of money. I didn’t know you could just go out and get more, so I was stingy. Instead of going out and getting more money I’d just sell the stuff I had to buy other stuff.
I’d sell my baseball cards to buy more cards, sell my comic books to buy more comic books. I’d often lose money because I rarely let my cards or comics appreciate in value before I sold or traded them. Every once in a while I go into the garage and look at the cards and comics I spent years collecting. It’s kind of depressing. I have like 20 comic books, and one binder and box of cards.
I never developed the collection I wanted, because I was operating from a scarcity mindset and constantly selling and trading what I had.
The same goes with most things in life. Operating from a mindset of limitations on what you have and what you can get will prevent you from building the practice you want and achieving your vision for yourself, your family and your future.
It’s one of the reasons I had such a tough time when I started. I was desperate to get people in. They probably sensed it. I gave huge discounts, I didn’t build value in my product, I didn’t communicate the value of chiropractic, and my practice and confidence reflected this.
Only after I started changing my mentality was I able to become more successful in practice.
Over time I became much more comfortable with money. I started spending more money on my own education, I started giving it away to people, charities and causes, and this mindset gave me a much healthier relationship with money, and you can do the same.
Here are the big takeaways I’ll leave you with:
Understand that there is plenty of money out there. 46.5 billion dollars was created today. Even more will be created tomorrow.
Know that your customers have money and they spend it on things they want.
You sell the greatest health care product in the world (RIP Barry Anderson), and create huge value for your clients when you practice the right way. It’s not a zero-sum game. It’s win-win.
Spend your money more freely and enjoy a healthier relationship with money. Carry around cash. Hold it. Spend it. Give some away. Over tip. Feel good about it. You will get more.
It’s easy to get when we sell such an awesome product.
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One book that really helped me understand this mindset is Dan Kennedy’s book No B.S. Wealth Attraction in the New Economy. Get it today and it will help you too.
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