Ollie who is inspiring to all newbie riders

A joke about lycra highlighted passion - purpose then profit

Last week, while riding to a meeting and engaging with local businesses for Neighbourly Ride , one person joked, “Do you ever get out of your Lycra?”

I laughed and said that riding 50 kilometres a day probably wasn’t practical in casual shorts and a T-shirt. Then I added that I felt fortunate — through my passion for cycling, I’ve been able to work toward something that feels purposeful.

I finished by saying that, ultimately, I still need to focus on profit.
He replied that most people start with profit, then work backwards to passion and purpose.

That stayed with me

Over the weekend, a friend offered a different perspective: when you lead with purpose and passion, profit doesn’t have to come at there expense. You don’t need to sacrifice what matters to build something sustainable.

Startups often follow this same path. Many begin with a deep belief in solving a real problem — something they genuinely care about — and spend years pursuing that vision before profit becomes predictable.

It’s a familiar journey: purpose first, belief second, sustainability later.

Of course, the fundamentals of business haven’t changed for hundreds of years. You need customers. You need to be paid for your product or service. And yes, you need to make a profit.

But business has always been more than just money. At its best, profit is not the goal in isolation — it’s the outcome of creating something useful, something that serves people, something that improves the welfare of the community around you.

When you try to do things differently — when you don’t follow the usual playbook — there are often long periods of being lean, times of real austerity. If you can endure, and survive long enough the effort can eventually realise a profit and allow the business to operate as a going concern.

And profit doesn’t have to mean the newest luxury car or a home five times larger than what families lived in during the 1950s. It can mean living modestly, building resilience, creating jobs, supporting others, and contributing something meaningful to society.

Validation

Our recent Carlton Neighbourly Ride was a quiet reminder of why we do what we do.

Ollie joined us as a newcomer, still finding her balance on the bike and building confidence to ride on both local paths and roads. By the end of the ride, she was beaming—excited and proud of how much she’d accomplished and how far she’d come.

At the heart of Neighbourly Ride is the community—the people who keep the gears turning, supporting each other, and making every ride a shared experience of connection and joy.

A Harvard study that followed people for more than 70 years found that it wasn’t the wealthiest who lived the longest or healthiest lives, but those with strong relationships, community ties, and a sense of meaning.

Those who live isolated, disconnected and alone rarely experience old age in good health — or, in many cases, old age at all.

For me, that’s the real measure of success: building something that can sustain itself financially, while leaving people — and communities — better than it found them.