Introduction
This topic has occupied my thoughts for months and I have been meaning to write about the business of sustainable entrepreneurship, with great struggles to find the right words but I think I am ready now. In the year that I have been running Intentionality I have had many different feelings towards sustainability as a discipline. From the first time I explained this idea to close friends and family, I was met with puzzled looks and questions of how I intended to make money from this blog. In our world this question is very valid, cause what is the point of doing anything if it is not going to yield any results? So throughout this period I have been operating from a place of fear and worry, but now I realise that I should have never gone into this business with the expectation of making a quick buck. So below I will fill you in on the three main reasons why I still write this blog.
Compassion
Sustainability exists because the status quo is not good enough. We live in a world that puts profits before anything else. The fixation on profits is the number one cause for exploitation, death and suffering on both a personal and economic level. I chose sustainability to make people realise that there is another way to how we currently live and treat one another in the workplace. We need to be more mindful of how we treat each other and the resources around us.
Resilience
As mentioned above, any utterance about my blog is usually met with confusion and scepticism. Once someone told me to let go of the idea altogether, particularly because I am black, the individual told me that I had no business pursuing sustainability because it was worthless. With comments like these it is very easy for one to give up and move on to the next thing, but not me. I write about sustainability because I am black and I see how much work my community and race has done for this cause. From our hanging lines to keeping our ice cream containers and using them as Tupperware. I would have to be completely out of touch with my surroundings to not pursue sustainable development and spread it through my writings.
Motivation
I write about sustainable fashion, but really my motivation comes from the fact that every aspect of my life can be sustainable, all the way down to the work that I do. Sustainable entrepreneurship exists because of people who are motivated by the change brought about by awareness, encouraging words and sustainable actions performed everyday around the world. The world will benefit if more of us chose to live differently and drive to make that change by spreading the sustainability message as far and as wide as it can go. I will only know peace in my heart once I see a larger community of sustainable consumers in our world. Improving the world is not a destination but a journey and I will continue walking the path until we see a change.
Conclusion
I finally understand that working within a niche market means that sometimes what I am working towards will not materialise in my lifetime and that maybe I am building a foundation for future generations. Sustainability is not a get rich quick scheme but a way of life and truth. Conclusive research and analysis takes patience and in the meantime I will continue to share my ideas until a time where everyone in the room can engage with concern and compassion.
