The Ten Principles of Abundance Thinking

1. If it’s digital, sooner or later it’s going to be free.

2. Atoms would like to be free, too, but they’re not so pushy about it.

3. You can’t stop free.

4. You can make money from free.

People will pay to save time. People will pay to lower risk. People will pay for things they love. People will pay for status. People will pay if you make them (once they‘re hooked). There are countless ways to make money around free (I list fifty of them at the end of the book). free opens doors, reaching new consumers. It doesn‘t mean you can‘t charge some of them.

1. Redefine your market.

Ryanair‘s competitors were in the airline seat business. It decided to be in the travel business instead.

1. Round down.

If the cost of something is heading to zero, free is just a matter of when, not if. Why not get there first, before someone else does? The first to free gets attention, and there are always ways to turn that into money. What can you make free today?

1. Sooner or later you will compete with free.

Whether through cross-subsidies or software, somebody in your business is going to find a way to give away what you charge for.

1. Embrace waste.

If something is becoming too cheap to meter, stop metering it.

1. free makes other things more valuable.

Every abundance creates a new scarcity. A hundred years ago entertainment was scarce and time plentiful; now it‘s the reverse. When one product or service becomes free, value migrates to the next higher layer. Go there.

1. Manage for abundance, not scarcity.

Where resources are scarce, they are also expensive—you have to be careful how you use them.