Episode #138 Gratitude as a Sustainability Strategy

Overview

In this episode of Public Health Entrepreneurs, Dr. Charlotte Huntley reframes gratitude from a “feel-good” sentiment into a strategic practice that sustains both impact and longevity in public health businesses. Speaking directly to established public health entrepreneurs navigating slow progress, complex systems, and increasing hostility toward public health, she explains how a disciplined gratitude practice helps maintain perspective, resilience, and alignment with a mission of health equity and systems change. Dr. Huntley walks through five specific areas entrepreneurs can intentionally be grateful for: community, small wins, failure, the people they serve, and the privilege of doing meaningful work. She also challenges listeners to see gratitude as fuel for long-term leadership, not a luxury or afterthought.

Takeaways

• Gratitude is a sustainability strategy, not just a mood booster, helping public health entrepreneurs navigate burnout, policy barriers, and slow systems change while staying anchored to their mission.​

• Treating gratitude as a strategic habit sharpens leadership by reinforcing long-term thinking, recognizing team contributions, and shifting focus from what is broken to what is possible.​

• A “community of problem solvers”—fellow public health entrepreneurs, mentors, collaborators, and even competitors—forms a critical support ecosystem that reminds you you are not solving population health challenges alone.​

• Small wins and early indicators, like promising pilot results or a breakthrough stakeholder moment, are key signals you are on the right track long before large-scale public health outcomes show up in the data.​

• Failure functions as feedback in public health entrepreneurship, as unfunded grants, stalled pilots, or dropped partnerships refine strategy and strengthen future interventions.​

• Staying grateful for the communities, patients, and populations you serve keeps the work human-centered, grounding strategy and spreadsheets in real stories and lived experience.​

• Recognizing the privilege of working on health equity, disease prevention, and systems change reinforces purpose beyond profit, which is essential for sustaining impact-driven businesses.​

• A daily practice of gratitude helps public health entrepreneurs stay in the game for the long haul, supporting both personal resilience and team culture in mission-driven organizations.​
  

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