Cool! Someone Wrote A Song About Principled Profit

Out of the blue this morning, I received a fascinating e-mail:

Hi Shel,

I’m Joel Falconer, lead singer and songwriter of the Gold Coast,

Australia-based Grok Rock band Midnight.Haulkerton. I don’t want to

bother you, but I thought you might be interested in this.

Earlier this year we came up with the idea of the Tuneback. A

Tuneback is a song recorded under the self-imposed time limit of one

hour from conception to publication (making it more of a concept or a

’sketch’ than a complete song) and a new one must be posted once a

week, every Tuesday.

Given that most songs take weeks to go through the recording process

alone, not to mention conception and publication, it’s no mean feat,

but it’s quite a fun way to interact with an audience online and keep


us thinking.

I guess it’s a frugal, grassroots way of not only publishing music,

but creating it too!

This week I wrote the Tuneback with my good friend and colleague, NDK

Creative Artist, who said you’d know who he is and sends his regards.

He first introduced me to your work a couple of years ago, and I must

thank you for your article on frugal weddings, which helped to shave

a few pennies from my own last year.

This Tuneback was inspired by the idea of Principled Profit,

something NDK is a strong advocate of, and so am I. We are all

interested in solutions to the poor state of culture and

civilization rather than the continual whining of most mass media

(who I think cause many of the problems in the first place) and self-

pitying artists.

The fact that there is someone actively doing something about the


problem of unethical marketing is inspirational and we want to honor

you with the dedication of this song.

To which I say–go right ahead and bother me, Joel. Any time you write a song about my ideas, I’m delighted to be interrupted. I had never heard of Joel before this e-mail (although I have corresponded with NDK–we used to be on the same discussion group), and I’m impressed that I made an impact all the way to Australia–without even discussing the Business Ethics Pledge (which does have a number of Australian signers).

The song is kind of a synth/metal thing, not the sort of thing I usually listen to. But I really like the lyrics (used with his permission, of course):

Principles of Profit

The principles of profit

Say make your money in the honest way

Good work, hard work

Quality all the way

It pays

Shortcuts to profit, don’t really exist

You gotta be alive just ask Ken Lay

There’s nothing wrong with making money


There’s nothing wrong with making hay

It’s all in the way you make it

The principles of profit say

Make it the honest way

The cheating culture, full of vultures

Picking over scraps

Pluck the vultures, cook their goose

Change the cheating culture


You want to be loose, you want to be free

Live the life you want to live

We gotta keep on changing, re-arranging

So we can make profit in a principled way

There ain’t no shortcuts to profit

That’s just cutting corners to hell

There’s nothing wrong with making money

There’s nothing wrong with making hay


It’s all in the way you make it

The principles of profit say

Make it the honest way

Make honesty pay,

Make honesty pay,

Make honesty pay

Profit the principled way

I also really like the way Joel manages to refer obliquely to several of my websites and book titles in his message, subtly cueing me that he has taken the time to study my stuff a bit.