Consumer vs. Producer— A Change in Mindset That Will Change Your Life

Adam Cave
The Startup
4 min readFeb 26, 2018

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“Every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He is by constitution expensive, and needs to be rich.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

What keeps us from starting that side project? Or from building that company? What keeps us making excuses for why we can’t begin?

Consumer mindset

We are all consumers. We spend our days reading, listening, eating, and buying. We buy things we don’t need to make us happy. A constant consumption of newer and better things. We work to afford the newest clothes, the nice car, the expensive dinner out.

But none of this will add happiness to our lives. True happiness comes from helping others — from carving out our own path. It comes from the confidence gained by knowing that you can succeed in your dream.

As long as you remain only a consumer you will not have the fulfillment you desire. A consumer can never get enough. They can never be truly happy. They will always look at the world through the lens of what they can get from it, instead of what they can give to it.

Producer Mindset

Producers, on the other hand, strive to make something valuable to others. They receive their payment not only monetarily, but through the…

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Adam Cave
The Startup

Father & husband. Jack of many, master of some. Obsessed with improving processes and removing the noise.