Ethical Entrepreneurship
by Pace on September 18th, 2008 @ 7:53 am in
Ethical Entrepreneurs
Tags: conscious capitalism, generosity
When we first started talking about making the Usual Error Project a big part of our lives, we felt conflicted between our goal of helping people and our goal of making money. Not only did we argue about the priorities of these goals, we argued about whether it was ethical to charge money for it at all!
Our situation reminded me of what I’d read about conscious capitalism — I thought it sounded pretty skeezy. It sounded like commoditizing spirituality; selling things that really “ought” to be given away for free. Commoditizing helpfulness and goodwill felt like the same sort of thing to me.
This is the story of why I changed my mind.
After many discussions, some arguments, and at least one drastic life change, we finally agreed on our goals for the Usual Error Project. Here they are, from highest priority to lowest.
- Help people
- Enjoy the journey
- Make money, so we can do more of #1 and #2
When we run our business according to these goals, when we live our lives according to these priorities, amazing things happen. We feel wholeheartedly awesome about making more money (no longer ambivalent or skeezy!), because every dollar feeds our highest priority goal of helping more people. It creates a positive feedback effect, an upward spiral of positive energy and awesomeness!
We’ve found that this upward spiral only manifests if it’s put into action, not just words. If you talk about helping people later, or enjoying the journey later (the deferred life plan), you’ll end up making money later, too. Run your business at the beginning like an itty bitty version of what you envision it being in the future.
Putting this into action has been really fun and rewarding! We took the majority of our startup capital and gave it to a friend to help him achieve his dreams. When another friend generously loaned us some additional money, we agreed on a fun interest rate and he decided to do “something awesome” with the money so gained. We’re rearranging our personal budget (which, in a small business, has a big impact on our business budget) so we can help out a couple of our family members in what we hope will be a win/win situation.
It feels really good, and it makes our priorities concrete. Before we’ve even made a single dollar in profit (in this incarnation), we’re helping people. And now we know, concretely, that when we make more money, we will help more people.
Knowing this — feeling it in your gut — changes everything. I no longer have twinges of guilt when telling potentially interested people about the Usual Error Project. I used to worry about bothering people or being perceived as a spammer. I’m still just as strongly against annoying people and just as strongly against spamming and other forms of interruption marketing, but I no longer feel any twinges when I talk about the Usual Error Project (or our blog) with potentially interested people, for example on a relevant mailing list. Because I’m not doing anything bad, I’m not trying to sucker people out of a buck, I’m not acting selfishly. I’m trying to help people, first and foremost.
What are your goals and priorities in your business? Are you making them real? Are you living according to them? Or are they just words on a piece of paper labeled “Mission Statement” or “To-Do”?
8 Comments!
#2 Posted by 
James. S. on September 18th, 2008 2:05 pm | link
Hey, I’m a friend of Megan’s and quite new to your blog. The only way I can describe this post is inspirational. This is definitely a philosophy that needs to be spread. Have a good day.
#3 Posted by 
Oliver Danni on September 18th, 2008 9:32 pm | link
My therapist and I just had this VERY SAME CONVERSATION yesterday! You’d like him a lot, he’s very ethically aligned with us (I can’t wait for him to read your book, holy SHIT.) We were talking about being healers and having to make a living, and whether it’s possible to actually make a living doing what you love when what you love is something you don’t think people should have to pay to be able to have. Basically the conclusion that we came to is that by doing things to make SURE that you, the healer, know that you’re doing what you’re doing BECAUSE YOU LOVE IT…like having pro bono clients, like volunteering the exact same services you’re offering for a fee to people who can’t afford the fee (not a “watered down version” of the services), like using your free time to empower the communities you’re working in that may not be able to afford your services, like educating others about healing so there are more people out there able to do the work (instead of trying to keep all the work to yourself so you get paid more in a “competitive market” type way).
He’s been doing this a lot longer than I have, but I’m working on it. ;-)
#4 Posted by 
Teyli on September 18th, 2008 11:53 pm | link
Another thing you may consider is that consumers are more likely to treat your opinion as valid if there is some level of cost associated with receiving your opinion. The old, “It costs more so it must be better” allows producers to increase perceived value without necessarily increasing product quality.
Would it also lend your work additional credence to have some (any) price associated with it? And by increasing the perceived value of your work, do you then in turn increase the perception of your expertise and your consumers’ level of confidence that what you say can help them?
I don’t mean to imply that your work needs any artificial inflation of value, I find it to be quite valuable already. I’m trying to say (albeit wordily) is that if your goal is to help people, it may improve your helpfulness to engender a subconscious trust in you before they even begin reading.
Just some thoughts I had after reading this post as well as your post on becoming an expert.
#5 Posted by 
Pace on September 19th, 2008 1:23 am | link
@Megan: Yes! Let’s do that when we do the site redesign! I’ve added it to the wiki.
@James: Thank you very much! Feel free to spread liberally! (: I hope you have a good day too.
@Oliver: YES! That’s awesome synchronicity! And the flip side of that coin is the ethical obligation we have as healers and/or worldchangers. It makes me really happy that you and your therapist are thinking these awesome things too. (:
@Teyli: Right! We’ve talked a lot about perceived value and pricing. Our current plan is to have a healthy mix of giving away free stuff and charging a quality-feeling price. For example, we’re planning on giving away our e-book for free but selling the print book for a reasonable price. We may give free workshops sometimes but other workshops will have a good, quality-feeling price, the kind of price you feel good about paying for something that could turn your life around in an awesome way. And if we give a money back or double your money back guarantee, then even the skeptics will know that we truly believe we’re offering something of true value rather than inflated value. Thanks for reading and for sharing your thoughts!
#6 Posted by Be remarkable and authentic: Social media is dead; long live word of mouth! | Pace and Kyeli on September 30th, 2008 10:14 am | link
[...] Ethical Entrepreneurship [...]
#7 Posted by 
Andy on September 16th, 2009 9:19 pm | link
“I’m not trying to sucker people out of a buck, I’m not acting selfishly. I’m trying to help people, first and foremost.”
And that’s why I let you guys e-mail me your blog posts. It’s a business blog, yes, but you’re not being jackasses about it. You actually mean what you say, and you’re not trying to pitch yourselves every sentence. You’re just talking, and it happens to be relevant to both your lives, and your business.
#1 Posted by
Megan M. on September 18th, 2008 11:52 am | link
Okay, wow. Y’all need “digg” icons or some such thing, so that when I feel the urge to clap, I can satisfy that urge by giving you a vote or something. Whew.
I guess I’ll make do with posting you on Twitter. Ha ha!