Why scarcity still shapes lives of firm founders

It was authored by colonial forces that extracted wealth, by communities taught to survive on little, and by institutions that rewarded caution over daring. Its lines are familiar; there isn’t enough, trust no outsider, take what you can today. 

We see its mark in business decisions driven by short-term fear, in partnerships avoided due to distrust, and in an optimism so cautious it barely dares to dream. The poverty script is not mere pessimism, it is a survival code wired into our psyche.

Why is this mindset so entrenched? History offers clues. Colonialism didn’t just draw new maps; it built economies to extract, not empower. Trillions were siphoned away, and even today much of Africa’s wealth lies in foreign hands.

Generations internalised the message that prosperity was stolen from us, that we must cling to whatever remains. We carry an ancestral debt, a burden of past trauma and tales of lack. Our forebears lived in a zero-sum world and passed down proverbs of caution and hoarding. It is as if we are born indebted to their struggles, warned that if we risk the little we have, we will lose it all.

The emotional roots of scarcity thinking run deep. There is fear, fear that sharing will push us out, that failure means ruin when there is no safety net. There is distrust, not because we are innately cynical, but because history taught us that promises break and help often vanishes.

The poverty script leaves the mind like cracked soil in drought: even when rain comes, it struggles to soak in. We urge ourselves to be realistic, but often that realism is just the old script talking and holding us back.

Abundance thinking is a rebellion against this narrative. It is not naïve cheerfulness, it is a deliberate choice to rewrite our internal programme. At its core, it rejects the notion that another’s gain is automatically my loss, and embraces the idea that the more we create, the more there is to go around.

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This mindset is not blind to our real challenges; it simply refuses paralysis. Think of it as planting seeds in that cracked soil and tending them diligently.

Abundance says yes, the ground is dry, but with care it can turn fertile. It is a long-term, regenerative mindset replacing short-term, zero-sum thinking.

This approach is not about wishful thinking, it is about courageous thinking. It takes courage to hire for potential rather than just pedigree, or to collaborate openly in a culture where secrecy feels safer.

Abundance thinking says we grow together instead of I am on my own. It prioritises building over hoarding. A founder with this mindset might even turn down predatory capital that would strangle her vision, trusting that a better opportunity will come.

These choices are not easy, they run counter to everything we have been taught. When scarcity is ingrained early, it becomes our default lens. By adulthood, those beliefs operate quietly as truth. To override them, we must consciously update our mental software.

It starts with small acts of trust, sharing a nascent idea with a peer, helping another founder with a contact, or setting fair prices and wages when instinct says to grab all you can. Each act is a vote for a new narrative. Gradually, these choices rewire our mindset.

Escaping the poverty script is the precondition for building anything lasting. A venture built on fear and short-termism is like a house on sand, one storm and it collapses. We have seen businesses stay small because founders hoarded control, partnerships break from each side guarding their slice, innovation stall under we have always done it this way. 

In contrast, founders who bet on abundance play the long game. They design products with community in mind, seek solutions that multiply value, and cultivate networks of allies instead of armies of one. Those ventures endure, often growing into institutions in their ecosystems.

Breaking out of the poverty script is more than a personal mindset tweak, it is a philosophical shift and a cultural reset.

It means questioning long-held assumptions and daring to say, our story does not have to repeat itself. It means recognising that a cautious inner voice may be just an echo of a past that no longer serves us.

Before we build companies, we must build mindsets capable of nurturing them. This is the foundation, without it, every strategy rests on shaky ground.

Abundance thinking provides the seeds of a new script; now we must cultivate them in practice, infusing this mindset into how we hire, partner, risk, and build. 

Michael Anthony Macharia is a serial entrepreneur, founder of Seven Seas Technologies and Ponea Health