· 8 min read
I no longer recognized the lady in the mirror
I spent three decades in C-suites, building companies from six figures to nearly a billion in revenue, buying and selling over 70 companies, making millions for others — easily, almost by rote.
Then I signed orders to fire 1,500 people who'd done nothing wrong. I watched divisions scramble to produce stellar work with 50% budget cuts. I halted new product development pipelines.
I left with no soul, no heart, no will.
Years later, I led another company to success. Cash-rich. Solid operations. Sustainable business. Then it was sold in a leveraged buyout. The next day — literally the next day — I couldn't pay regular bills. Ten years later, that company ceased to exist.
In 2015, streptococcal meningitis gave me two seizures, two strokes, and a week in a coma. My doctors call me a minor medical miracle.
That virus forced me to ask: Was the way we do business actually working? For whom? At what cost?
Five years investigating one question
During recovery, I decided to investigate: Was climate change real, or had business been fed a lie?
I'm not a scientist, green analyst, or clean tech founder. I'm a business person who knows how to make money and navigate boardrooms. I wanted answers in plain English — probabilities, timelines, risks, dollar figures. Not jargon.
In 2021, I launched a podcast at the intersection of business and Planet Earth, interviewing economists, lawyers, scientists, and experts of all stripes.
Four years and 150 episodes later, I can talk reasonably intelligently about the planet and mostly about what's going wrong from a business point of view.
The pattern that keeps emerging: a lot of talking at, but little talking to.
Why the sustainability movement is losing
Early on, I wondered where the global champion was for Planet Earth. In my experience, all change programs need a champion. Each religion has its ultimate leader; every country has its ‘supreme’ president, prime minister, or king. Even a cult typically has a charismatic lead at its helm.
But the sustainability movement? It is disjointed, scattered, and therefore, I reasoned, weakened. It has no coordinated leadership. Deniers and skeptics wreak havoc because facts don't sell headlines — clickbait and anger work better.
Activists operate with both hands tied behind their backs. They don't speak business. They must fight lies, misinformation, and lack of engagement simultaneously.
Meanwhile, businesses and lobby groups have lied for decades — selling more products, protecting the status quo, and preserving their positions rather than serving humans or the planet.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: Capitalism is killing the planet and the people within it. We've embraced profit at all costs.
But there's another side. Do businesses really need massive returns? Can we find a middle ground where money is made at a less frenetic rate? Where people are treated as humans, not wallets? Where we acknowledge the planet's resources are limited and our current conduct amounts to rape and pillage?
What business people actually need
A business person does not need all the technical jargon that scientists and governments prefer.
They need probabilities. They need money figures. They need risk assessments. They need timelines. And most importantly, they need plain English.
They need to understand trade-offs, because no business can ever do everything. There are always trade-offs. That will never change.
What changes is how those trade-offs get made. Keeping businesses' feet to the fire in the right way for that company helps ensure sustainability trade-offs don't fall too far down the list.
This is where I come in.
What I bring to the table
I understand how businesses actually operate — not in theory, but in practice. I've sat in rooms where smart people made terrible decisions under pressure. I've watched long-term investments get cut for quarterly targets. I've signed documents that destroyed sustainable businesses in the name of shareholder value.
I know where the bodies are buried because I helped bury some of them.
But I also know what's possible. I've seen what happens when businesses are structured differently, when they have patient capital, when they align incentives properly, when they actually invest for the long term.
I don't have all the answers. But I have better questions. And I have three decades of experience translating between two languages: business-speak and people-speak.
Three pillars for the highest good
These days, my work centers on three pillars: Our planet. Ourselves. Our businesses. For the highest good for all.
That last phrase is crucial. Since World War II, we've focused selfishly on keeping up or getting ahead. Businesses and people both. This is patently wrong and is now playing out in extremes — income inequality and the extinction of species.
We must shift from individual good to collective good.
This requires understanding stewardship. Most humans don't grasp what it means: We don't own our bodies, businesses, or planet. We look after them for the next generation.
Looking after and caring for is not the same as controlling.
A few weeks ago, I was complaining to a friend about how the lack of a single global climate or sustainability leader was crippling progress. ‘Even your Buddha was a singular leader,’ I said in deflated tones.
Hold on she said. My beloved, Thich Nhat Hanh, never preached about one Buddha. He always said, ‘One Buddha is not enough; we need to have many Buddhas.’
Her comment caught me off guard. But of course! The world IS better off with many. The world functions more effectively in a community.
And that to me is the brilliance behind you and me gathering here on Illuminem. It’s a global community to which we can each return, alone or with friends, to rest, ponder, recharge, and reenergize.
I was wrong. We don’t need a singular champion for Planet Earth. We need more like you who are involved and making change bit by bit every day. And newsflash. In the work I have done over the last five years, there are way more like you than you would believe. You are NOT alone. There are many. Gathering hope and steam every day.
That’s why I am delighted to be here with you.
What to expect from my articles
I write for Illuminem because the sustainability community needs someone who speaks business fluently, who can call out much of the mythology on both sides, and who has some experience in doing things differently in the for-profit world.
I have several ideas I want to share with you. I’ll begin with these three:
"The Myth of Market Demands." I trace the origins and evolution of shareholder value maximization.
“Designed for the Margins.” If 100% of us are stressed, unfocused, and mindlessly reading/scrolling, what are the best ways to cut through all that noise?
“The Lies We’ve Been Fed.” I trace the roots of the marketing lies that still form the foundation of how business is conducted today. So not true.
Every bit of these articles comes from my lived experience sitting in those rooms, making those decisions, watching the trade-offs play out and learning how to move forward while trying not to repeat the errors.
My promise: I never play favourites. I examine all sides. I advocate for what works better for everyone. And I never lie. If I don't know something, I won't make it up.
I'm here to support that part of the sustainability movement which sits at the intersection of business and Planet Earth, by better equipping those who want to make a difference in their own companies and individual efforts.
Why now matters
This moment in history, with the climate crisis accelerating, business models breaking, and the old playbook obviously failing, is precisely the right time for someone with my background to speak up.
We can't afford any more sustainability theatre. We can't afford business leaders hiding behind business mythology. We can't afford activists who don't understand how boardroom decisions actually get made.
We need bridges. We need translators. We need people who've made the mistakes so others don't have to.
I've made so many of those mistakes. I've learned from them. And now I'm using whatever platform I have to tell the truth about how business really works. And how it could work better.
What you'll gain
Read my Illuminem articles regularly, and you'll gain a business veteran's perspective on why sustainable practices face systematic resistance, where that resistance originated, and practical strategies to overcome it.
You'll learn which business mythology to question, which pressure to resist, and which choices create long-term value for all stakeholders.
You'll understand trade-offs better. You'll speak business more fluently. You'll be better armed for the fights that matter.
Because business can be a force for good — when structured right, with patient capital, accountable to multiple stakeholders, taking the long view.
But only if we choose to build that way.
We're all living with the unintended consequences of actions we collectively took over the last 100 years. Do-overs are fantasy. The only thing we can do now is do better. And that do better absolutely must be in the highest good for all.
I look forward to collaborating with you for the benefit of Planet Earth.
illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Sustainability & Energy writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.
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