When Your True North Is Money

In leadership workshops, I often get asked:
"Andy, what if our True North is making money — lots of it?"

It’s a fair question. After all, businesses need revenue to stay alive.
I run a business myself, and I can attest — making money is good for business.

But when I dig deeper into why leaders ask this, the story is often the same:
A childhood of scarcity.
Years of instability.
A family business that failed.
Parents working three jobs just to keep the lights on.

These leaders aren’t greedy — they’re survivors.
They’ve carried grit in their bones and a vow deep in their hearts: “I will never go back to that life.”

But here’s the hidden challenge: when your True North is solely money, it becomes an extrinsic motivator.
You get a dopamine rush every time you win.
But soon, it fades.
So you chase the next win — harder, faster, and more desperately.

Over time, this cycle erodes your relationships, health, integrity, and joy.
The bigger the number gets, the smaller the satisfaction feels.

Wealth without alignment is just another form of poverty.

The Shift That Changes Everything

Through the True North Radical Resilience (TNRR) framework, we guide leaders to see that they don’t have to choose between exceptional wealth and a meaningful life.

They can still make a lot of money — but in a way that is sustainable, fulfilling, and legacy-building.

Because here’s the truth:
Radical Resilience doesn’t just protect your profit — it protects the people who make profit possible.

Why Virtuousness Wins — And Why You Can’t Fake It

Research from Kim Cameron at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business shows that:

• Virtuous behavior has a positive impact on others.

• It is intrinsically motivated — done because it feels good and is aligned with core values, not for manipulation or external rewards.

If you help someone just to close a sale or gain a promotion, the kindness becomes transactional. People feel it — and the trust is broken.

That’s why authentic virtue is non-negotiable.
When individuals and organizations are genuinely aligned to True North, they experience the amplifying benefits of virtue.

The Data Is Clear — and It’s Not Even Close

Cameron’s research compared virtuous organizations to those that weren’t.
The findings?

• Virtuous companies outperformed competitors on every metric:

  • Productivity

  • Innovation

  • Profitability

  • Adaptability

  • Employee retention

When employees’ personal True North aligns with the organization’s True North, it creates a buffering effect, protecting companies from:

• Disengagement

• Burnout

• Turnover

• Absenteeism

This isn’t theory — it’s empirical evidence.

But What About Non-Virtuous Companies That Succeed?

Of course, we all know companies that have made massive profits without being remotely virtuous.
But here’s the real question:

Was it necessary for them to succeed that way?

Or could they have achieved even greater results, with less collateral damage, had they embraced a virtuous model?

Based on my experience, I’ve seen the virtuous model win consistently — with phenomenal efficiency.

Why TNRR Stands Apart

Most training programs fail because:

• They lack a practical framework for real-world application.

• They focus on surface-level skills rather than deep transformation.

• They provide band-aid solutions instead of fixing the root cause.

True North Radical Resilience operates at the source-code level — the identity and culture of your organization.
When you upgrade who you are, every behavior and decision flows naturally in alignment.

Legacy is built when money serves mission — not when mission serves money.

The Business Case You Can’t Ignore

If I told you we could help you:

• Amplify every key performance metric — productivity, innovation, profitability, adaptability, retention.

• Protect your company from disengagement, burnout, turnover, and scandals.

…wouldn’t it be business malpractice not to explore it?

Because the so-called soft skills are, in reality, your highest-performing profit drivers — when applied the True North way.

The Bottom Line

TNRR isn’t just another workshop or HR initiative.
It’s a transformation engine for leaders and cultures who want to be extraordinary, sustainable, and wildly profitable — without losing their soul in the process.

Because making money is good.
Making it without losing yourself is better.
And making it while elevating everyone around you?

That’s greatness — and it’s sustainable.