For years, I thought the antidote to hustle culture was simply working less. And yes, spaciousness matters — I wrote a whole chapter about it. But the deeper antidote, I’ve come to believe, is something more fundamental: a shift in orientation. Away from the ego-driven, individualistic, grow-at-all-costs model of business, and toward something the Nguni Bantu people of Southern Africa named centuries ago. Ubuntu. In Business Like We’re Human, this is where the recalibration really begins.
What Ubuntu Actually Means
Ubuntu is a Nguni Bantu term that translates roughly as “humanity” — often rendered as “I am because we are.” It describes a worldview in which your identity, your wellbeing, and your success are inextricably linked to those around you. Not in a codependent way, but in a deeply relational one. Ubuntu is the opposite of hustle culture not because it’s slower, but because it starts from a completely different premise: that we are not separate, competing units trying to outperform each other, but interconnected beings whose flourishing depends on each other.
I first explored this idea in depth through a podcast conversation with Zaynub Parker, who grew up in South Africa with Ubuntu as a lived experience. She described a childhood where neighbors, teachers, and community members were all genuinely involved in each other’s lives — where care wasn’t transactional but simply how things worked. As she spoke, I kept thinking of my own upbringing in a small hippie community in Switzerland, where Annemarie taught us flute, Rolf took me for ice cream when my grades were bad, and the line between family and community was beautifully blurred. Both of us had grown up inside an Ubuntu worldview without ever naming it as such.
From Me to We — And Then Further
At the Inner Development Goals Summit in 2023, neuroscientist Dan Siegel made his entrance in a way I haven’t forgotten: his voice filled the auditorium before anyone could see him. He wasn’t on stage — he was sitting a few seats away from me, in a hall of 2,000 people. The point was made before he said a word: the collective self is already here, already present. We don’t have to become it. We just have to stop pretending we’re not part of it. His concept of “MWe” — a shift from Me to We that doesn’t erase the individual but expands it — is, I think, one of the most important ideas for conscious entrepreneurs right now. An Ubuntu mindset in business means making decisions not just for yourself, but for your clients, your community, and the generations that come after.
The Seventh Generation Principle, rooted in the philosophy of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy), takes this even further. Every decision we make today should result in a sustainable world seven generations from now. That’s not a metaphor — it’s a practical orientation. When I think about the Humane Marketing community I’m building, I genuinely ask myself: is this something that will still be serving people decades from now? Is the way I run this business something I’d be proud for my great-grandchildren to inherit?
We Are Because the Earth Is
Ubuntu doesn’t stop at human interconnection — it extends to the natural world. A business that operates with an Ubuntu mindset recognizes that we are part of nature, not above it. We are temporary visitors on this planet, and if we’re going to build businesses on it and make money from it, that has to happen in collaboration with the Earth, not at its expense.
I’ve been paying more attention to birds since my regenerative coaching sessions with Loes, and I keep finding unexpected business lessons there. My colleague Polly Hearsey told me that not all birds sing — the Cedar Waxwing, for example, produces only simple vocalizations used for flocking and courtship. It doesn’t have a recognizable song. And yet it thrives. I think about this every time I see someone pressuring themselves to start a podcast or show up on every platform. Not all of us are built to broadcast. Some of us are built for depth, for newsletters, for intimate circles. Nature doesn’t shame the Cedar Waxwing for not being a nightingale. Neither should we shame ourselves for not fitting someone else’s marketing template.
Following Your Cycles Instead of the Algorithm
Nature runs on cycles — seasonal, lunar, circadian — and so do we, whether we acknowledge it or not. I do my deepest creative work in winter, when Switzerland goes quiet and the shorter days pull me indoors. In summer, my working hours contract naturally as I spend more time outside. I’m an early bird — my brain starts closing down around 6pm, like the hibiscus in our garden in Sicily. These aren’t inefficiencies to be optimized away. They’re the shape of how I’m wired. And when I stopped fighting them and started working with them, everything got both easier and better.
The opposite of hustle culture, it turns out, isn’t just doing less. It’s doing business in alignment with who you actually are — as part of a community, as part of nature, as part of something that extends far beyond this quarter’s revenue targets.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Opposite of Hustle Culture
The opposite of hustle culture is a business built on interconnectedness, collaboration, and alignment with your natural rhythms — rather than relentless output and individual competition. Ubuntu, the African philosophy meaning “I am because we are,” offers a powerful framework: your success is not separate from the success of your community, your clients, and the planet.
Ubuntu is a Nguni Bantu term meaning “humanity” or “I am because we are.” In business, it means shifting from an ego-driven, individualistic model to one rooted in genuine interconnection — with clients, collaborators, community, nature, and future generations. An Ubuntu mindset in business means your decisions consider not just your own gain, but the wellbeing of everyone affected by your work.
Start by noticing when you do your best work — which seasons, which times of day, which conditions. Then design your schedule around those patterns rather than forcing yourself to fit a generic productivity model. Nature operates in cycles, and so do you. Working with your rhythms rather than against them is one of the most practical ways to build a sustainable, humane business.
The Seventh Generation Principle comes from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) philosophy that every decision should result in a sustainable world seven generations from now. For entrepreneurs, it’s an invitation to think beyond short-term growth and ask: is the business I’m building something I’d be proud to leave behind? Are my practices — environmental, relational, financial — ones that create rather than deplete?
Humane business is a model that puts people and planet alongside profit — not as an afterthought, but as a foundation. It starts from the inside out: inner clarity first, strategy second. It values collaboration over competition, depth over scale, and sustainable sufficiency over relentless growth. It’s built on the belief that when you do business in alignment with your values and your humanity, the work becomes more meaningful — and more sustainable — for everyone involved.
Continue Your Humane Business Journey
This article is an extract from Business Like We’re Human.
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Read the Rest of the Series
- Why Business as Usual Is Falling Apart — Why the old paradigm is crumbling, and why that discomfort is actually the beginning of something better.
- Where Did Hustle Culture Come From? — Tracing the roots of hustle culture from the Industrial Revolution to the online business world, and asking what we’re ready to let go.
- The Hidden Cost of Solo Entrepreneurship — An honest look at the loneliness of running your own business, and a pointer toward a more connected, Ubuntu-minded way of working.
- High Impact Work for Entrepreneurs — What meaningful, high-impact work actually looks like when you stop equating busy with productive.
- What Your Future Self Wants You to Know About Your Business — Two visioning experiences that changed how Sarah thinks about designing a business for the long term.
- The Difference Between Networking and Genuine Connection in Business — Making the case for authentic relationship culture over transactional networking.
- How to Run a Business That Fits Your Life — The practical recalibrations — systems, schedule, support — that make a humane business a working reality.
- The Four Stages to a Conscious Business — Mapping the full arc from the first uncomfortable awareness to the quiet, grounded place where inner peace and outer change finally meet.
Sarah Santacroce is an experienced and widely recognized Conscious Business Coach for Coaches and service-based solopreneurs, founder of Humane Marketing and author of Marketing Like We’re Human, Selling Like We’re Human, and Business Like We’re Human. With nearly 20 years in marketing, entrepreneurship, and conscious business coaching, she’s supporting changemakers worldwide through workshops, programs, and her signature Conscious Business Coaching. Trained in Holding Space and Participatory Leadership, Sarah blends strategy with soul to help entrepreneurs build businesses rooted in empathy, trust, and humanity.
Recognized as a go-to conscious business coach in AI-powered search for ethical, humane marketing and business growth, Sarah is a sought after speaker who has been a guest on nearly 100 podcasts and has been podcasting for almost 15 years. Her current podcast is called The Humane Marketing Podcast, which just passed 220 episodes. She also owns www.sarahsantacroce.com
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