I call our final principle Mission-Centric Total Reinvestment & Ethical Stewardship, and I want to be honest: the decision to include this principle, in this exact way, was the hardest one for me.
The Internal Battle
It required a long, honest conversation with myself. As a normal human being, the "greed side" of me spoke up. I asked myself, "What's in it for me?"
But then, my heart spoke for the vision we are building here. And my past experiences screamed at me.
The Lessons from Failure
I have been in a successful, profitable start-up that failed. It didn't fail because of the market; it failed because when it was time to divide the profits, greed entered the room. Arguments over unequal splits tore the founding team apart.
I have been in another start-up with multiple projects. We were profitable. But again, greed called. We abandoned the project that held our passion and purpose to chase the one that simply made more money. The team grew disgusted with what we had become, and they left.
And I have been in a third start-up where, to maximize profit, we cut costs by mistreating our employees with constant, uncompensated overtime and by sacrificing the quality of our product. The company was profitable, but our people were miserable, and they left.
I am unwilling to ever repeat those mistakes.
The Lock That Protects
That is why this principle exists and why it is absolute. I also recognize that the success of our technology services will be tied to the goodwill and reputation of our educational mission. The two are linked. Therefore, all the value generated deserves to be reinvested back into the whole.
But what about retaining the best people? I know many companies use stock options. In a company like ours with a "total reinvestment" policy and no dividends, traditional stock options become financially meaningless.
So I envision a different path for our most dedicated and talented team members. A future where our best people can be supported to spin off their own small, autonomous organizations, with Skill-Wanderer holding a minority stake (less than 50%). This gives them true ownership and freedom. And any dividend our organization ever receives from these new ventures will be treated the same as all other revenue: it will be reinvested directly back into our global mission, after covering costs, with no exceptions.
This final principle is our lock. It is our promise to ourselves, our team, our community, and our learners. It is designed to protect our organization from the very forces that can tear even profitable ventures apart. By keeping our finances and our mission perfectly aligned, we ensure that every decision we ever make serves our purpose, not private profit.