The Mandela of the Environment

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The dancer is realistic. His craft teaches him to be. Either the foot is pointed or it is not. No amount of dreaming will point it for you. This requires discipline, not drill, not something imposed from without, but discipline imposed by you yourself upon yourself.
Your goal is freedom. But freedom may only be achieved through discipline. In the studio you learn to conform, to submit yourself to the demands of your craft, so that you may finally be free.
— Martha Graham

I love connecting with fellow HarperCollins Leadership authors! Joshua Spodek PhD MBA is a three-time TEDx speaker, #1 bestselling author of Initiative and Leadership Step by Step, host of the award-winning Leadership and the Environment podcast, and professor at NYU.

Joshua is committed to being the Mandela of the environment—to be a leader who is living sustainably and sharing how a low impact lifestyle brings joy.

Check in with your own environmental footprint and tune into Joshua’s inspiration here:

Describe your perfect day as a Wildpreneur.

Stewardship of nature and service to others motivate me. Any day I both act in stewardship of nature and help another person do so and find joy in it, I call a great day.

Tell us about your wild business(s) and lifestyle! What was your inspiration to blaze your own trail through business (become a coach, author, podcast host, TED talk speaker, etc.)?

I saw no leaders even trying to live sustainably and sharing that doing so brings joy—no Mandela of the environment—so I'm taking on the mantle.

I viewed stewardship as deprivation, sacrifice, and burden until committing. Experience revealed that replacing polluting behavior like flying and packaged food with stewardship improved my life, releasing that twisted feeling from destroying what I wanted to protect.

I’m in year 5 without flying. I committed to a year, which I found so rewarding that I don't expect to fly again
Emptied my garbage once in 2019, once in 2018, once in 2017, and so far zero in 2020, aiming not to fill this load until 2022
Picked up litter over 1,300 days and counting
Over 400 podcast episodes leading famous and influential people to share and act on their environmental values
3 TEDx talks
5 people started podcasts based on mine. A movement is afoot

What do you wish you’d known prior to getting started as a Wildpreneur?

How much I'd wish I'd started earlier.

What advice would you give to someone who is considering turning their passion into a business?

Consider all the effects of your life and business—not just what you want, but the unintended side effects. Look in your heart. Anything you have to rationalize will twist you up inside. Resolving that conflict will improve your business and life.

Do you have a favorite motivational quote?

My favorite relevant to stewardship, from Norman Borlaug, on winning the Nobel Peace Prize for the green revolution:

The green revolution has won a temporary success in man’s war against hunger and deprivation; it has given man a breathing space. If fully implemented, the revolution can provide sufficient food for sustenance during the next three decades. But the frightening power of human reproduction must also be curbed; otherwise the success of the green revolution will be ephemeral only.

Most people still fail to comprehend the magnitude and menace of the “Population Monster”. . . Since man is potentially a rational being, however, I am confident that within the next two decades he will recognize the self-destructive course he steers along the road of irresponsible population growth.

What are you working on right now?

Proposals for a TV series and book on my approach to stewardship.

Where can we follow you? Please share your website, Instagram, Facebook, etc.