Scarcity Is the Root of All Evil

I don’t believe that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” Instead, my experience has been that scarcity is the root of all evil.

For starters, I’m not sure that the “good” and “evil” labels are very helpful in being successful and happy. My thinking is that people are either behaving in such a way that they’re creating more happiness or less happiness in the world.

People share what they have. Happy people spread happiness, and unhappy people spread unhappiness.

The four major sources of happiness from the research in Positive Psychology are: 1) A caring relationship with yourself, 2) Caring relationships with others, 3) Work you love doing, and 4) Enough money to pay your bills with some left over for having fun.

As a leader you can create a culture that ensures your followers are happy, engaged, and productive. For example, you can: 1) provide good health benefits to help people take care of themselves and their families, 2) create and reward your team for teamwork so they experience caring relationships with others, 3) assign your team roles which play to their strengths and passions so they love their work, and 4) pay them at fair market value for the contributions they make to your organization.

When people experience scarcity in one or more of the four major sources of happiness they spread that unhappiness (evil) in your organization. For example, they can: 1) be disengaged and do the minimum amount of work necessary to avoid being fired, 2) undermine teamwork by competing with and sabotaging their teammates, 3) complain and spread negativity to the rest of the team and to outsiders.

People are people, and you can’t blame them for maximizing their rewards in the culture in which you as the leader create. Make it a culture of “abundance” rather than “scarcity” and I promise that you’ll be very pleased with the results.

Don’t be a stranger. (770) 993-1129. tdockery@TheResolveFirm.com