Random musings: The Myth of Scarcity: 12 Stupidly Easy Things That’ll Set You Apart from the Pack

Here's an interesting article from The Art of Manliness.

In the modern world, it often seems like it’s harder than ever to accomplish your goals.

It seems like everyone has already done the thing you want to do — that your idea is already out there, that your niche is beyond saturated.

But is that really true? Or does it just seem that way?

Yet this feeling of scarcity is just an illusion, a myth.

In truth, there’s never been a more opportune time to live. Not only because it’s never been cheaper and easier to write a book, share your art, or start a business, but because the average person’s ability to execute on the basics has never been in such short supply.

Most of us deal in scarcity thinking. There's only so much...time, money, people, you name it - whatever it is, there's not enough of it. I prefer abundance thinking...there is more than enough for everybody. There is about $241 trillion in assets worldwide...And if the world’s wealth were distributed completely evenly and every adult human had an even share, everyone would have $51,600 (according to Wait but Why) - not a lot of money but it makes an interesting comparison, since half the world has less that $4,000 of net worth!

More from the AoM article:

While opportunities to achieve your goals aren’t as scarce as you think, there are areas where true scarcity does exist: in common sense, in social skills, in manners, in reliability. There’s a dearth of people who know, or have the will, to do the stupidly easy stuff to be charming and successful.

And this:

There are tons of people doing what you want to do, but how are they executing? In 90% of cases, not as well as they could be.

That’s your opening. And such openings are absolutely everywhere.

Here is the list:

What is some of that stupidly easy stuff? Below you’ll find a (non-exhaustive) list of the things it’s hard to believe people don’t do more often, and which have a huge ROI because most people can’t be bothered.

Send a thank you text when you get home from a nice party/date.

Write handwritten thank you notes, always and often.

Edit your emails/texts before sending.

Know how to make small talk.

Don’t be a conversational narcissist.

Don’t look at your phone during a conversation.

Dress well for a job interview.

Come to a job interview prepared to ask questions of the interviewer.

Take a woman on a real date.

Offer a sincere apology when you mess up.

Follow through.

Be reliable.

OK, a few of these are aimed specifically at young, single males but I think that most of them can be applied to anyone.

Be sure to check out the article for more details.