Why Nobody Wins With a Zero-Sum Mindset

If you're not familiar with the zero-sum concept, it's essentially the idea of balancing accounts. There's a positive amount, there's a negative amount, and together they equal zero. When we translate that to the real world it means that when someone wins, someone else has to lose.?

But that presupposes there's a fixed amount of resources available for all of us to access, which often leads to people viewing the outsized success of others as 1) limiting their own prospects and/or 2) an obligation to contribute to the benefit of others. Yet the real limiting factor is this mindset itself, because it impedes our individual growth by diminishing our self-determination and self-reliance.?

We tend to view needs and assets as a finite construct, like a pie we’re trying to divide up and serve. When you reexamine the paradigm of “have” vs. “have-not,” however, you can find value. When you find value, you understand the true size and shape of the so-called pie. And when you avoid falling into a trap of bias about how to measure and determine what’s “fair,” it helps you realize you can make a new pie.?

That requires a bit of disruptive thinking. But even that isn’t quite enough. Because competition is an age-old human tradition that, in most cases, occurs in archetypal zero-sum situations. Sports are the perfect example of where we place the value of competition in the outcome. But then we miss seeing the potential of different types of gains.?

So, how do we break the hold of something that has threaded itself through the fabric of our lives, from sports to academic competitions to social media to business units vying against each other for recognition and/or resources?

1. We recognize–and accept–that as society becomes more complex, specialized, and interdependent it becomes increasingly non-zero-sum.
2. We remember and celebrate how self-determined we each can be in our own lives.?
3. We better champion examples of how to “fail” with respect and dignity and how to “succeed” with humility and kindness.?
4. We stop reducing ourselves to one-dimensional representations of value.?

Read more about my views on the zero-sum mindset in my latest Rolling Stone article and please share your thoughts on what I’ve written.