Why Hustle Culture Is Failing Entrepreneurs (And What Nature Does Better)

Most entrepreneurs think clarity comes from doing more.

More thinking, planning, and screen time.

Polly Hearsey does the opposite.

When something feels stuck, she goes outside and stays still. She returns to the same place again and again. A hill. A patch of ground. A place that begins to feel familiar enough to listen.

No agenda, and no forcing answers.

Just 10 or 15 minutes of paying attention to what she can sense rather than what she thinks.

That simple practice shows up all through her work. It is why her approach to business feels different. Calmer. Truer. Harder to rush. Impossible to fake.

It also happens to be the reason we are building the Sit Spot Network here at Wild Woods Retreat. Dedicated places for entrepreneurs to pause long enough for clarity to surface without pressure or performance.

Not to be productive… to recalibrate.

Polly’s story is a powerful reminder that business does not have to be built at full speed to be sustainable. Sometimes the most radical move is to sit still and listen.

Her feature below explores what happens when you stop forcing growth and start designing your business the way nature does.

Slowly.
Honestly.
On purpose.

Polly Hearsey Is Building Businesses Like Forests. Hustle Culture Hates Her for It.

Polly Hearsey is standing at the edge of the hills where England leans into Wales.

Mountains behind her. Wind moving through grasses. A place where nothing is optimized and everything works.

This matters.

Because Polly did not wake up one morning and decide to rebel against modern business culture. She followed it first. Properly. Thoroughly. With qualifications, frameworks, and a respectable marketing career that looked successful from the outside.

And felt wrong on the inside.

The kind of wrong you cannot fix with a new planner or a better funnel.

When the Rules Stop Making Sense

Most of Polly’s clients arrive with the same quiet thought.

“I know there’s another way to do this. I just don’t know what it is.”

They are not lazy. Not unambitious. Not afraid of work.

They are exhausted by business advice that demands constant fire energy. Always launching. Always pushing. Always optimizing. Always performing.

Nature does not operate like that. And Polly noticed.

She stopped asking how businesses should work and started asking a better question.

How would nature do this?

Nature Does Not Scale. It Regenerates.

Polly’s work is not about forcing entrepreneurs outside so they can hug trees and feel better about their inbox.

It is about recognizing that most business burnout comes from violating basic natural principles.

In nature, collaboration beats competition.
Rest is productive.
Nothing grows year round.
Everything is true to itself.

An apple tree does not apologize for not producing carrots.

Polly sees entrepreneurs doing the human equivalent every day. People cutting off their most natural strengths because they do not fit inside a neat business box.

Too many interests, curiosities, and contradictions.

Polly does not help people simplify themselves.

She helps them integrate.

Your Business Has an Energy. You Probably Ignored It.

Before Polly did this work, she was a marketing consultant. Then a marketing mentor. Then she dropped the word marketing entirely.

Now she works in business design. Not logos or websites. Not tactics first.

Energy first.

She helps clients identify the energy that drives their business, the transformation they actually offer, and the state of being of the people they want to serve.

Not avatars, demographics, or shoe size.

State of being.

The work is sensory. Embodied. Quietly disruptive.

Clients notice tension in their bodies when discussing certain offers. Expansion when describing others. Relief when something finally clicks into alignment.

That information matters.

Ignoring it is how businesses quietly sabotage themselves.

Stop Burning It Down. Adjust the Ecosystem.

Many established entrepreneurs come to Polly at the brink.

They have done everything right. Followed the rules. Built the thing.

And now they want to burn it to the ground.

Polly offers another option.

You do not need to destroy the ecosystem. You need to understand it.

Businesses, like forests, are systems. When parts work against each other, the whole thing weakens. When they feed each other, everything stabilizes.

This is not about throwing away what works. It is about realigning what no longer fits who you have become.

Subtle shifts. Deep relief.

Take Your Business for a Walk

Polly gives her clients simple instructions that feel almost irresponsible in modern business culture.

Go outside. Take your business for a walk. See what it wants to show you.

When people stop forcing solutions, clarity arrives. Not because they worked harder. Because their nervous systems finally switched off survival mode.

Nature pulls the brain out of constant doing and into a quieter problem solving state. The kind where answers appear without effort.

People come back saying, “I worked it out and I was not even thinking about it.”

Exactly.

Microgreens and Forests

Polly thinks about growth the way nature does.

Short term crops matter. They keep things alive. They pay the bills.

But she is planting a forest.

Some people arrive ready. They step in immediately. Others need time. Conversations. Stories. Gentle exposure to a different way of thinking.

Both paths matter.

Sustainability is not just environmental. It is internal. Cultural. Human.

And yes, Polly rejects the idea that productivity requires sitting at a desk. She calls that belief what it is.

Nonsense.

Where This Is Going

Polly’s long view is cultural change.

More writing. More speaking. More conversations that help people unlearn extractive business models and remember that they are part of an ecosystem, not above it.

She wants to take this work into teams and organizations next. To show businesses that healthier systems create better outcomes. Not through pressure. Through design.

The underground network is growing. Slowly. Quietly. Relentlessly.

Like mycelium.

Start Here

If this resonates, Polly suggests beginning gently.

Explore her work at https://pollyhearsey.co.uk.

In particular, look for her guided audio journey Nature’s Mirror, a simple, powerful way to reconnect with your own truth through nature.

No hype. No hustle.

Just another way.

You’ll love this conversation:

Timestamps:
00:00 Why nature and business belong together
07:45 Being true to yourself as a business principle
16:10 Sensory intelligence and decision making
27:55 Microgreens vs forests in sustainable growth
39:10 Rebuilding business culture from the ground up

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