The Dark Side of Doing Business

Photo from the Official Star Wars Blog

There are basically two ways you can make money. You can make money by adding value or subtracting it from others. Examples of adding value would include: Selling a product that meets a need, solve a problem, providing a useful service. Examples of subtracting value would include: Robbing, stealing, and basically tricking other people out of their money. Like everything else, there are several different shades in the middle.

The question I want to ask is: Why do people choose the dark side of making money?

One reason might be because it’s easier. But I tend to think that’s only true for the short run. At least in Second Life, I don’t know businesses that can earn real world income solely powered by stolen goods.

I think one of the more compelling underlying reasons for doing shady business is the scarcity mentality. It’s basically the mindset that there are only so much money to be made. In order for me to make more, someone else need to make less.

Using Stephen Covey’s words:

The Scarcity Mentality is the zero-sum paradigm of life. People with a Scarcity Mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power or profit – even with those who help in the production. The also have a a very hard time being genuinely happy for the success of other people.

Chew on that mindset for a minute. From this viewpoint, it completely justifies stepping on someone else to get ahead. After all, if the game is designed such that only so many people can win, other people’s failure will contribute to your success simply by having one less competitor.

If you have this mentality, your ideal business is to have a monopoly. This way, you can have all the pie to yourself. Consequently, you will have the most amount of money that can be made. However, is this what you would want from the consumer perspective?

Allow me to make a case for the abundance mentality. Again borrowing from Stephen Covey:

The Abundance Mentality, on the other hand, flow out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody. It results in sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits, of decision making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity.

You don’t have to simply steal my pie to get ahead. We can bake bigger pies! I personally am really fond of this mentality because of what it enables me to do. It enables me to redirect my customers to competitor’s products when it suits their needs better. It allows me to share ideas tips with fellow business owners without jealousy. It allows me to not just have success for myself but share it with others.

I cannot convince you to believe one mentality over another. You have, no doubt, already made up your own mind base on your own experiences. I can only ask you to ponder the consequences of the mindset which you subscribe. If you believe that your success must come at the expense of others, consider the actions you will take. No, consider the actions you must take in order to succeed…

Perhaps the abundance mentality is not as profitable as the dog-eat-dog pursuit of monopoly, but I have found it more enjoyable and open. When someone focus on nothing else but making as much money as possible, it is when bad things happen. Very bad things.

Therefore I urge you, take joy each others’ success. Share, collaborate, and create value. There is enough pie to go around without taking other people’s slice.

-Todd