Do the right thing, and do it now. Your reward will be as if you have dipped yourself in holy waters and your soul will sing with joy.

Some thoughts after yet another chat with a Venture Capital guy.

There’s an old saying that “the greatest threat to our environment is waiting for someone else to save it.” But I believe there’s a greater threat still—a far more insidious and corrosive corollary: “waiting until you’re sure you can make money doing it”.

This modern plague—of financial self-interest masquerading as environmentalism—is dressed up in the language of business plans, ESG investment decks, and carbon-neutral product launches. It is a culture that has commodified conscience, demanding that any act of ecological restoration first pass the profitability test. If it can’t boost quarterly earnings, drive shareholder value, or go viral as a feel-good marketing campaign, then we are told it’s not sustainable.

The tragedy here isn’t simply delay. It is the abdication of our moral duty in the face of planetary collapse. It is the idea that we cannot act unless we also profit. That doing good for its own sake—for the sake of life, love, legacy—is naive, unscalable, unbankable. We have built an economic ecosystem where altruism is penalized, and where environmental action must come with an ROI spreadsheet, and a beating passionate heart is not an asset.

Consider this: In a world where ocean and climate chaos intensifies by the hour, we still hear voices saying,

“Yes, this solution might work—but how will it pay?”

Oceans once full of life diminish and acidify, forests burn, species vanish, and children protest in the streets while adults calculate net present value. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs and influencers push endless “green” schemes: offset marketplaces, eco-coins, and yet another app promising to “change the world”—if only it can reach enough users and raise its next funding round.

This is not environmentalism. It’s opportunism dressed in recycled plastic. And the enrichment sought is not only in cash.

For many, the profit lies in ego and reputation—being seen as the savior, the genius, the green visionary. It lies in TED talks and tenure, in growing a social media following or securing another research grant to study the bleeding world die from a safe academic perch. In the nonprofit world, it lies in marshalling armies of passionate volunteers—worker bees who believe they serve a cause, while their efforts feed the prestige and power of organizational .org  queens and kings.

Those who wear the robes of righteousness—whether green activists, professors, or executives of eco-charities—are too often more like moneylenders at the doors of the modern temples. They must deliver a return, if not in dollars, then in publications, in devotion, in influence. Passion, truth, and “do what’s right,” is not their gospel but rather “do what pays.”

The tragedy is not just that they are waiting for someone else to save the planet—it’s that they are waiting to profit from being seen to say they are doing so. And the currency is broader than money. It’s clout. It’s prestige. It’s staying relevant in the conference circuit, in the charity Bingo hall, in the public square. It’s holding onto, nay brandishing, the golden keys to the gate of the public trust.

A new friend of mine, who spent years working as a door-to-door canvasser for Greenpeace, recently shared a painful realization. He and others like him, passionate souls barely paid for their grueling labor, were being exploited. Not merely financially, but spiritually. What their masters were stealing from them was their passion. That burning belief in making a difference was being harvested for institutional and the privileged elite gain, while the very people who carried the message were left disillusioned and discarded, their masters slogan, “the floggings will continue until morale improves.”

It must be said plainly: The Earth is not a business opportunity. It is our only home.

There is no stock market on a dead planet. No ROI on an empty ocean. No equity value in a collapsed civilization. If we continue to require financial upside as the precondition for action, we will find ourselves fabulously bankrupted—morally, ecologically, and ultimately, economically.

My business mantra—not motto—has always been: “Save the world, make a little money on the side.” In that order. With now 50+ years of work in eco-restoration, environmental science, and management, I have seen this proven again and again. Whenever the parts of the mantra are reversed and many a time a well meaning Venture Capital investor would chastise and tutor me saying make money must be the first goal. Every time the magic, the true passion, and the virtue  were ground under the heel of the greenwashed vibram soles on the concrete sidewalk.

My friend and mentor Dee Hock, founder of VISA, often reminded me that “doing well by doing good” is not just a noble idea—it’s a philosophy that can enable ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. Dee believed, and I have seen firsthand, that integrity, purpose, and service are not barriers to success; they are the very path to it.

The real heroes of this age will not be those who waited until it was safe or profitable to act. They will be the ones who moved first, who restored before returns were guaranteed, who gave more than they took. The ones who understood that the highest form of profit is a livable world for future generations.

It’s time we reclaimed the idea that doing the right thing—especially when it’s hard, especially when it doesn’t pay—even when it takes decades of trying is still worth doing. That love for our planet, and for all life upon it, is not a brand asset, but a sacred obligation.

Because if we wait until saving the Earth makes financial sense, we may find that by then, there is no Earth left to save.

And what is most important of all is this: Do the right thing, and do it now. Don’t wait. The personal reward will not come in coins or clicks, but in the quiet, radiant truth that your soul will feel as if it has been dipped in holy waters. You will know the joy of acting with purpose, and your heart will be full.