Overcoming fear and scarcity: Lessons from a humble shoemaker who lived a long time ago in a place far away

I was reading a fairytale about a shoemaker to my 4-year-old daughter the other night, and it occurred to me that in many ways the story was a good measure of our ‘givers gain’ attitude.

The story goes that an old shoemaker and his wife have no money for food, but just enough to buy leather for one pair of shoes. He buys the leather and leaves it on the counter with the intention of making the shoes the next morning.

But lo and behold, the next morning there sits an exquisitely crafted pair of beautiful shoes. Hardly able to believe his luck, the old shoemaker puts the shoes in the window and soon after they’re sold for a handsome sum.

Now with food and enough money to buy leather for two pairs of shoes, the old shoemaker leaves the cut leather on the counter overnight, intending again to work on it in the morning. But, lo and behold, the next morning there are two pairs of exquisitely crafted shoes on the counter!

He duly sells the shoes and makes a lot of money. This continues for some considerable time and, now successful, the shoemaker and his wife become curious about who is making the shoes. That night they hide in the cupboard and, at the stroke of midnight, there appears to miniature men who set about singing and dancing and… making shoes.

The old shoemaker and his wife notice that the two little men are wearing threadbare old clothes and have no shoes of their own. Together, to say thank you, the old shoemaker and his wife make them a new set of miniature clothing and a pair of tiny shoes each.

They leave the clothing out and hide in the closet again that night. Promptly at midnight the two men appear again and are stunned to find such fine clothes and shoes for them. Together they sing: “New clothes we have, no more shoes shall we make”. And they promptly disappear for ever and ever.

The story concludes by saying that the shoemaker – no doubt thanks to his new reputation – went on to have a long and successful business making his own shoes after that.

My question is this: “If you knew that, by making new clothing and shoes for those two little men – essentially your free labour force – you would lose their services for good, would you still do it? Would you wait? Would you hesitate?”

Consider your gut feeling… it will be a good measure of your abundance mindset.

Coined by Stephen R. Covey in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, an abundance mindset is based on the premise that a person believes “there are enough resources and successes to share with others”.

Covey also called it Win/Win – “considering the possibility of all parties winning (in some way or another)”.

Over my years I have seen both an abundance mindset, and a scarcity mindset in BNI chapters – the latter usually characterised by the fear that if somebody else wins, you lose.

Always driven by fear, that scarcity mindset can manifest in many ways, but one of the most common was what I call “category hogging” – occupying two or three categories in your chapter and jealously guarding them, even pouncing on visitors who may be a threat.

A common example of a category hog is somebody who occupies the graphic design, printing and copywriting categories in the chapter.

Not only do we lose the benefits of specialisation when we category hog, we rob ourselves, and our fellow chapter members, of more people and wider networks with whom we can network and form good relationships.

Some of the most profitable business relationships you will ever have in business, will come from people who may, at first glance, appear to be competitors.

There is no end, for example, to the opportunities a hub of three people – printer, graphic designer and copywriter – can offer each other, so long as you’re prepared to ‘give’ with the possibility that it may disappear, but will almost certainly come back to you threefold.

“Abundance is a process of letting go: that which is empty can receive.” – Bryant McGill.