527: Mike Michalowicz, part 1: Entrepreneurship, stewardship, and engaging, compelling writing

This Sustainable Life

Mike and I are in an online writing group together. For a while I knew him as the funny and diligent guy whose books have thousands of reviews online. Then I read his big one, Profit First. I know entrepreneurship from living it, so I expected to skim it, but two things. His writing is as funny and engaging as he is and what he wrote was new and valuable. Those who have read it know what I mean when I share that I set up my five accounts right after finishing it.

Next I read Fix This Next and loved it too. I couldn't skim it because it also contained richness that I couldn't just gloss over. Plus it's fun, funny, and vulnerable. Both books covered values and acting on them. I invited him to the podcast and he loved the idea.

I don't know if he realizes how relevant his approach to entrepreneurship is to sustainability. Like previous guest Steven Pressfield's, The War of Art, I could copy Mike's books switching entrepreneurial things like profligate polluting for sustainability things lik profligate spending and humanity suffering for just family suffering. Other areas with parallels:

• Chasing growth mindlessly
• Ignoring costs
• Shame keeping you from change (also hopelessness, futility, community)
• Imbalance, not knowing or prioritizing values
• Unthinkingly applying old way that seems like it should work but it worsens
• Delaying what you really want, never getting it (profit / clean air)
• Desperation
• Monster destroys family and community
• Denial

Since I see him often online, I've heard little clues that his commitment from this episode is creating meaning for him. Listen to hear it. I wonder if it will lead him to apply his approach to sustainability.

• Mike's home page

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