Mary sat on the ground outside what used to be her home, her future uncertain and seeming bleak1.

Her husband had passed away, and now, under local custom in Yambio, South Sudan, his relatives were claiming the house, the land, everything. Widows here have no standing once their husbands are gone—or at least, that's what everyone believed.

With four children to feed and no income, Mary faced a choice that all of us encounter daily: accept scarcity as fate, or fight for something better.

What happened next offers a lesson about human potential that reaches far beyond one village in South Sudan.

The scarcity trap

Psychologists have a name for what Mary was facing: the scarcity mindset. When you're focused on what you lack—money, time, opportunities—your brain literally narrows. Princeton researchers found2 that financial stress reduces cognitive capacity by as much as 13 IQ points. It's like trying to make life's biggest decisions while sleep-deprived.

But scarcity isn't just about having less. It's about believing there will never be enough.

"Most people… see life as having only so much, as though there were only one pie out there," wrote Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People3. "If someone gets a big piece, it means less for everybody else."

This scarcity mentality shows up everywhere. The colleague who won't share credit. The business owner who sees every competitor as a threat. The parent who believes their child's success depends on another child's failure.

It's exhausting. And, as Mary's story reveals, it's often wrong.

A different way of seeing

Mary found her way to a training program run by OLENT4—the Organization for Liberty and Entrepreneurship. Supported by the Atlas Network5, OLENT teaches entrepreneurship and business empowerment to South Sudanese students, women, and youth market traders.

But OLENT's real product isn't business training. It's a belief.

"We believe in the fact that if an individual is empowered economically, they can stand on their own and prosper," says John Mustapha Kutiyote, OLENT's Executive Director.

The program taught Mary something revolutionary: she had rights under South Sudan's constitution that no one had ever told her about. The law said the house was hers. With OLENT's legal coaching, Mary took her case to court. She was terrified, because women don’t normally challenge these customs. But she showed up anyway.

The judge ruled in her favor.

So, Mary got her house back, but she didn't stop there...

From a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset

With her home secured, Mary applied OLENT's entrepreneurship training and opened a restaurant. Today, she feeds her family, employs neighbors, and sends her children to school.

Moreover, her success has rippled outward. Other women see what she has done and think, "Maybe I can do this too."

This is the abundance mindset in action—the belief that value can be created, not just divided. That one person's gain doesn't require another's loss. That there's enough for everyone willing to make it.

Peter Diamandis6, founder of the XPRIZE Foundation, puts it simply and inspiringly: “With an Abundance Mindset, rather than slicing the pie into thinner and thinner pieces, we just bake more pies… millions of more pies. This is the future that exponential tech enables. And this is true across almost every sector, whether or not people see it or recognize it yet.”

Abundance thinkers ask, "What can we create together?" while scarcity thinkers ask, "What will they take from me?"

The difference isn't just philosophical. It changes what you see and what you do.

Three forces that create abundance

Research on successful entrepreneurs and leaders reveals three qualities they hold in balance:

Gratitude

Studies at UC Davis7 show that people who practice daily gratitude are 20% more likely to achieve their goals. Not because gratitude is magic, but because it calms the panic that leads to desperate decisions. Mary was grateful for the support she received. Gratitude is fuel and strength to fight for one’s dreams.

Ambition

But gratitude alone can lead to complacency. Mary didn't just appreciate getting her house back—she wanted more. She wanted independence, income, and a future for her children. Napoleon Hill wrote that "whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." Mary conceived of a restaurant. Then she built it.

Generosity

When Mary succeeded, she didn't hoard her success. She hired others. She became proof that change was possible. Organizational psychologist and author Adam Grant found8 that "givers" ultimately achieve the highest long-term success—not despite their generosity but because of it. Generosity builds trust, which builds opportunities.

Remove any one of these three, and the system collapses. Gratitude without ambition can become complacency and settling. Ambition without gratitude can become neurotic striving. Generosity without the other two can lead to burnout and depletion.

But together? They create what economists call a "positive-sum game"—where everyone can win because the pie keeps growing.

The global abundance gap

Here's what makes Mary's story matter beyond Yambio: we live in a world of increasing abundance, but many individuals still can’t access it.

Since 1990, more than 1.5 billion people have escaped extreme poverty9—the greatest reduction in human history, according to Our World in Data. That didn't happen primarily through aid or charity. It happened through entrepreneurship, trade, and the spread of an abundance mindset that creates more value for all.

Happily, OLENT's approach is spreading. "Business is the solution to everything," John reflects. "If you want peace, business is the way toward it. If you want prosperity, business is the only way to it."

Business and trade are the answer, yes, when grounded on the win-win abundance approach that elevates everyone involved.

The question is – how can we spread this abundance approach so it can positively impact even more people?

What abundance looks like in practice

You don't need to start a business to adopt an abundance mindset. You can practice it today:

Notice what you have

Each morning, name three specific values at your disposal. Not vague gratitude for "health and family," but concrete: "I have a reliable car," "I have a friend who understands marketing," "I have two free hours this afternoon." This trains your brain to spot opportunities and resources.

Share something valuable

Make one introduction this week that helps two people connect. Share one insight you learned at work. Celebrate a colleague's success publicly. Watch what comes back.

Ask bigger questions

When facing a problem, instead of "How do I protect what's mine?" ask "What becomes possible here if we collaborate and trade?" That shift opens different solutions.

The abundance mindset isn't about denying reality or ignoring constraints. Mary faced real poverty, real injustice, real risk. The abundance mindset is about choosing to see opportunity within constraints—and acting on it.

One woman, one restaurant, one revolution

Today, Mary's restaurant serves customers throughout Yambio. Her children attend school. Her employees support their families. And other widows who once just accepted their traditional fate now know that another way is possible.

This is how abundance multiplies. It’s not by grand proclamations, but by one person proving it can be done and thus giving the next person permission to try.

OLENT is continuing its work—adding financial literacy programs, creating a small library with internet access for students, reforming inheritance laws—impacting one more student, one more struggling widow, each adding to the abundance ripple.

"We prefer to focus on what's going right—the positive things we've achieved," John says. "Because when we have a positive mind, everything will one day come to pass."

Your abundance choice

Scarcity or abundance—the choice is yours, and you must make it repeatedly throughout your days.

When a colleague succeeds, do you feel threatened or inspired?

When you learn something valuable, do you hoard it or share it?

When you see a problem, do you ask "Who's to blame?" or "What's possible?"

These aren't trivial questions. They're the operating system that runs your life.

Mary chose abundance when everything around her screamed scarcity. She chose to fight for her rights when no one in her family had ever done so before, to build a business when she had every excuse not to try. She chose to see plenty where others just saw a lack.

And in choosing abundance, she created it—not just for herself but for everyone her story touches.

This is the ultimate power of the abundance mindset: it doesn't just change how you see the world, it changes the world itself.

Notes

1 Empowering Women with Property Rights in South Sudan, by Atlas Network at YouTube.
2 Poor concentration: Poverty reduces brainpower needed for navigating other areas of life, at Princeton University.
3 The seven habits of highly efficient people: Habit 4 - Think Win by FranklinCovey.
4 Organization for Liberty and Entrepreneurship, OLENT.
5 Atlas Network actively partners with over 500 wholly independent, nonprofit organizations to promote, support, and strengthen the work of these local think tanks and civil society organizations.
6 Founder of the XPRIZE Foundation Peter Diamandis.
7 How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain, at Greater Good Magazine.
8 Organizational psychologist and author Adam Grant.
9 Poverty at Our World in Data.