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From: Robert LaPointe Subject: Abundance Thinking Date: 8/5/2004 10:19 AM Hi Just got back from an absolutely terrific week in a cabin on a lake with my family. Beyond question, my favorite time there was one night about 9:30 when my 9 year old son wanted to go fishing, so we took the canoe out on the lake. The moon was bright enough to read by, the water was black and flat and silent, and we just floated and talked and fished. It wasn't all play however. I've begun running full page ads in Inside Kung Fu Magazine, and Grappling Magazine and the orders have been coming in everyday. I had my calls forwarded to our cell phone while we were camping so I could continue to take orders and I'm glad I did, because I got a lot of calls, shipped a lot of my Shaolin Fitness Secrets book, and made some new friends. I haven't made any friends among my competitors though. Right before I left I got a nasty email from a guy who sells a fitness book in the same magazines. He said that by mentioning bridging and hindu squats I'd singled him out and attacked his product, and that I was no longer welcome at an upcoming business seminar he's hosting. I emailed him back saying bridges and squats have been around a while and that I certainly hadn't tried to single anyone out, but that I'd review my ad and see if I could reword it, and I wished him the best with his seminar. Then I called a friend who's an experienced marketer. I asked him if this fellow's reaction was typical. Here's what he told me. My ad was fine, and that I should just go right on ahead and compete in the marketplace like everyone else, and that he's in my corner. Then he told me there was a larger point - and that is that some people are "scarcity thinkers" and those people will always perceive a threat even if there isn't any. Plenty is never enough for them and their lives will always be dominated by a need to grab what they can get and hang on to what they got. He said that if we're lucky, we're not the kind of person who automatically thinks in those terms, and that instead of being a scarcity thinker we have a shot at being an abundance thinker. An abundance thinker knows there's plenty. An abundance thinker knows that many customers will buy both books, not just one or the other. An abundance thinker knows that the marketplace is nearly limitless and that anyone with a good product and a passion for their area - in my case, kung fu & tai chi - need never worry about being crowded by the other guy. More importantly though, he told me that the scarcity thinker isn't just unnecessarily worried about competition. The scarcity thinker is spiritually impoverished. He sees lack where there's abundance, and conflict where there's shared interest. And he told me the abundance thinker knows there's plenty. Of everything. And that we need only avail ourselves of it, and enjoy it, and share it, and pass it around, and there will be plenty more after that. And I'm glad he reminded me of all that just before my vacation. Because a few days later I was sitting in a still canoe at night afloat between the moon and the waterline. And the lake and the moon and I were listening to a 9 year old boy, and the fish weren't biting, and no one was particularly concerned because there is plenty. Of everything. Take care. Be an abundance thinker. And don't forget to train like you mean it.
Rob LaPointe |
