Saturday, November 29, 2008

Return on Life: Abundance Mentality at Work

I've written previously (January 31, 2008) about what Steven Covey calls "abundance" mentality, which is basically an attitude that suggests that there's plenty to go around for everyone, that someone having something doesn't preclude us from having it as well (money, love, happiness, etc.). It also includes the idea that sharing can be a positive experience for everyone involved.

In today's news, we have a real-life example of abundance mentality: The Spungen family, former owners of Peer Bearing Co. in Chicago not only sent turkeys home with their previous employees, they included sizable checks (a total of $6.6 million between 230 employees!) from the proceeds of the sale of the business earlier this year.

Now, I'm not imagining that they didn't keep anything for themselves. But no matter how much they netted, no one expected them to just give away nearly $30,000 average to each employee. How often have we seen, in recent months, CEOs who not only would never entertain such a thought, they are busy laying off employees and begging the government (read taxpayers) for bailout money while declining to forgo their multi-million dollar bonuses.

So, hooray for the Spungen family. They are the example we all should emulate. What's interesting is that not only are the former employees happy, as you would expect, but amazingly, so are the Spungens!

How can you be more abundant in your mentality? Give it some thought!

1 comment:

Walter J said...

Hooray for you, Becky, for taking time to point out some of the good in the world today! We need to get everyone more focused on what is right, rather than what is wrong with the world. Where focus goes, Energy flows!

As far as having enough to go around, I would suggest reading Wallace D. Wattles' "The Science of Getting Rich" written in 1910. He makes the case that ALL resources are available in abundance to everyone who thinks and acts in a Certain Way.

Concerning the Spungen family, they certainly had an Abundance Mentality as well as a Creative mindset. Wattles also points out in his book that there are two mindsets we can have: a Creative one or a Competitive one. Anything brought about by a Creative Mindset will ultimately yield positve growth and prosperity for all (the Spungen's)while riches secured on a Competitve plane are never satisfactory and permanent(can I have a bailout please?).

Makes me wonder...are the Spungens available for government or perhaps Wall Street work?