Improve Your Negotiation Outcomes by Developing an Abundance Mindset

When most people think of deals, they think there must be a clear winner and loser. That is known as the zero-sum game. If you play that game during a negotiation, everyone becomes a loser, including yourself and your clients. 

Unfortunately, I’ve dealt with zero-sum players my entire life. As a group, they tend to be miserable. They only find happiness if they feel like they can grind down other people and get one over on someone else (a.k.a. screwing other people over). However, this isn’t the case if you go into negotiations with an abundance mindset. 

Abundance mindset versus scarcity mindset 

Having an abundance mindset allows you to see the world as a place of opportunity and possibility. This can lead to greater success in all areas of your life, including your career, relationships, finances, and especially in negotiations. By believing there is more, you’ll give more, get more, and be more satisfied with what you have. 

A scarcity mindset, on the other hand, is like living in constant fear. You believe there is not enough to go around. You feel the need to compete and defeat others in order to get what you want. You may win a few times. Then, after screwing enough people over, most people won’t want to do business with you.  

As a talent agent, media attorney, and professor at USC Gould School of Law, I teach my students and clients how an abundance mindset can improve their negotiation skills. I’m also working on a new book—TILT the Room, coming out in 2026—which explains how you can use timing, influence, leverage, and trust to better negotiate. Here are three ways to improve your abundance mindset.  

1. Be generous.  

If you’ve read Adam Grant’s Give or Take, you’ll understand that people who are givers tend to be more successful than people who are takers or who look for a tit-for-tat in relationships. Generosity, in fact, is one of the strongest elements of influence noted in Robert Cialdini’s groundbreaking book, Influence. If people feel you are doing something for them, they will do more for you. You’ll end up negotiating better outcomes for yourself and others. 

2. Be grateful.  

Practicing gratitude changes your focus to what you have rather than what others have. You may have read about gratitude in Shawn Achor’s Happiness Advantage. When you are grateful for what you have, it makes the world feel abundant. In turn, you will appreciate what you negotiated rather than what you didn’t get from a negotiation.  

3. Be positive.  

Pay attention to the way you talk to yourself and the things you say to others. Your organic language influences how you feel about yourself and how people feel about you. For example, if you tell yourself, “I’m not good enough,” or “I don’t belong,” other people will start to think that, too. However, if you tell yourself, “I have something to contribute,” you’ll start acting like it and convincing people of it. People will feel your positivity and reward it with cooperation when negotiating. 

If you want to learn more about negotiations, there are many great books, such as Influence, cited above, and Never Split the Difference by Christopher Voss. However, there is less emphasis on the abundance mindset for negotiating, especially in negotiating deals that benefit everyone.  

I’ve been making deals my entire life, from when I was homeless and living on the streets until I became a serial entrepreneur. I used to have a scarcity mindset. Once I changed to an abundance mindset, I not only negotiated better, I also enjoyed life more. You can, too.