Virtue and The Courage of Making a Profit

I’ve been an entrepreneur my entire life. I was raised by entrepreneurial parents and grand parents. I started my first business, with the help of my parents of course, at the budding age of five, selling cookies on the weekends and candy canes at Christmas to the small businesses in the business complex where my parents’ business was located. It was nothing that would’ve “paid the bills”, not even in 1976, but a hundred dollars a week for two hard days of work was enough to be proud of and feel like the next up and coming mogul.

Among the classes I’ve taught on university campuses are Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics. So you can imagine, I was excited to get to spend some time yesterday talking with the guys over at Hunter’s Blend Coffee. You can watch the video here. The story behind how they got into roasting coffee is inspiring, driven by compassion and a love for others. Before the fad (and myth) of Fair Trade, Paul and Mike started trading virtuously, with coffee growers, coming alongside and laboring with growers. They became mentors to the growers, teaching them how to navigate exporting their coffee to the US in a way that truly benefits the grower. We learn first hand of the smoke and mirror policy of Fair Trade and how transparent trade raises the bar of accountability. We would do well to apply transparency to many areas and watch the fruits multiply. We also see how virtues have inherent value and when we apply virtue to business through relationship, it’s worth paying a premium. Decentralized private business beats centralized government control every time.