Gave this answer to an AskTRP question about abundance. It became post length. Here I am converting it into a post. I think it has value. Looking forward to your thoughts. Below is the answer/comment.


Abundance is having options, and the security that comes from the confidence in the knowledge that you can create options for yourself, whenever you want. It's the having of so much choice in what matters to you that while you have worked hard, work hard and continue to work hard to get what you want, if any particular option fails, falls through or doesn't work, you're not left in a position of destitution, emotional or financial, and within 5 seconds you can reset in such a way that ensures the quality of life, happiness and control you enjoy doesn't get affected in any way. It's the having of so many options and the ability to create further options that you prioritize your investment amongst options, never get overinvested in a particular option to the detriment of any other, and any point of time are in control over your life to the exclusion of externalites to achieve what you want.

Scarcity, is the absence of options and someone else having control over the choices in life you want to make, let me repeat, want to make, and the belief and inability to create alternatives that give you what you want really want. Other people have power and control over your time, money, life choices to the detriment of what you want.

This doesn't only apply to women. It applies to any sphere of your life in which you want and desire control over your path, and includes sex, romance, relationships and women, but also, family, work, money, travel, friends, education, health etc.

Let me give you an example. The chinese do not have political abundance. Why? Because they have only one option, the communist party. If you're a chinese citizen right now, your political and civil rights, but also your economic, family, education and health life are dictated effectively by nine men and now one man in Beijing. Your ability to decide what you want to do is severely limited to certain spheres at best if you're lucky and have some success, money, political power, but in many operative spheres of your life the average Chinese citizen has much less control than an American. Now, this would be living in scarcity if they want things that the the Communist party can't provide, like freedom of expression about Tiammen Square, for example, but it is abundance if the Chinese government is providing them with everything they want, as within the basket of what they want and the options they want too have, what the Communist Party provides is more than sufficient. In that sense, its effective abundance for them, because they don't want anything else. But if they do want something else, its scarcity. On the other hand, the Communist Party of China has extreme abundance. Tons of wealth, tons of support. You want an army? The desire of a single man or even a few thousand men matters absolutely not, because there are millions of others. Should they invest in Africa or Sri Lanka? Why not both? If one fails the other works.

Similarly, if your town only had one pizza shop (Kasich), you would have to pay as much as they could charge you, let's say 20$ a slice. But if there's two, you get to say, 20$ here, 18$ there, the pizza is equally good, there I go to the other one. So the other has to either reduce its price or serve different wants of yours. Now, say for example, there's only one pizza shop but you don't like paying 20$ for a slice. If it's a free market, you can start your own pizza shop. Or encourage a buddy too. Or invite a pizza chain from a neighbouring city/state to begin operations, making a great case. It's the ability to create options. Apply the same principles to women, money and any other sphere of your life you want control over.

A by-product of options is the need to prioritize them. That's slightly advanced, but once you have options you need to focus on one. Bill Gates could either have a degree from Hardvard or the oppurtunity to build and own the future of enterprise software for a hobbyist market which was about to take off in a decade. He had those options because of the skills he built as a programmer and businessman, his confidence and patience in himself, and the knowledge and financial security that whatever happened, he would find a way to be succesful, so he focused on one. Once you have options and the ability to create them, you need to choose where to invest in, instead of the world chaining you down with its investments (marriage, employment bonds, geographic and market restrictions). It's important to note it was his skills that allowed him to have the confidence to drop out, skills he had developed and tested as market valuable. Blind confidence is not a pathway to abundance, because when times get tough you'll pop like a balloon, as opposed to someone with real abundance who'll just pick up the phone or make or do something new.

Ok. So what are the salient features of abundance?:

  1. The having of options with your time, money, desires.

2.The ability to create further options with little to no difficulty.

3.The knowledge, belief and confidence that you can create those future options.

4.The developed or developable skills that enable that knowledge, belief and confidence.

5.The resultant don't-give-a-fuck attitude towards particular options, a manifestation of never overinvesting in particular options beyond necessary to get what you want, and ongoing investment in new options.

6.The immutable, inalienable, clear focus on what you very specifically want and the pathway to get there. Abundance is all about you, from your perspective.