I recently saw a LinkedIn post by Scott Stratten that ended with, “Ethics aren’t a renewable resource for your brand.” It’s a useful warning, for both businesses and personal brands, because we often act as if trust simply grows back on its own.
A tree farm should be renewable. If you look only at short-term results, simply harvesting can appear profitable. But if nothing is replanted, long-term profit is only an illusion.
Ethics rarely disappear all at once. They are spent slowly, one small cut at a time. And by the time the damage is obvious, the forest is already gone.