Today, Seth Godin, one of my favorite sources for inspiration in business, wrote a post on his blog about transparency and ethics in business. Someone raised the question about whether or not one could succeed in business without getting their hands dirty. Of course that depends on how you measure success…

I don’t make a lot of money running my six year old business Betty Belts, but everyone gets paid, everyone is happy, good vibes flow into the products, and I can sleep well at night. I don’t have much in the bank and sometimes it’s hard to make ends meet, but many tell me I am living the dream: living close to the beach, running an ethical business, traveling a bit, surfing a lot, giving back and inspiring a whole lot of people with my ethically made designs and down to earth philosophy.
They are right. And I couldn’t do it any other way.

There’s a reason I refuse to sell my brand to “the evil empire” big box retailers (you know who they are) and others who disguise themselves as authentic retailers, but are anything but.
Just say no.

I’ve been waiting to see terms like “ethical” and “transparency” finally become buzzwords, moving beyond simply “green” and “eco-friendly”, which is good, but isn’t enough. Changing the way we think about how/where/why we spend our money.