Why Teens Need Entrepreneurs as Mentors

Several months ago I felt honored to be invited to mentor a 17 year old high school senior.  As a requirement for graduation, each student chose a year long community service project, which culminated in an awards program. Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending the presentations and came away with an optimism about our future leaders.

Naturally, some of the students thought the project was “lame” and did only the required work with little enthusiasm. But what delighted me was seeing the pride on the faces of many others who were so inspired by the work that they far exceeded the obligatory hours. Their Power Point presentations, story boards, scrapbooks, oral or written reports showed they’d put far more time and energy into the project than was required.

I’m aware that young people often do volunteer community service because their churches encourage benevolence or they know it looks good on a college resume, but whatever their initial motivation, some of these kids discover empathy and purpose that hopefully will give their lives direction. Of course they feel the satisfaction of helping others but they also learn that goodwill and philanthropy isn’t just about volunteering and making charitable donations. That beneficence can be a way of life and a livelihood.

A proponent of socially responsible business, I found it encouraging that these young people gained an appreciation for and interest in environmental,  elder care and youth services careers.  As a life-long entrepreneur and self employment advocate, I was elated that they not only volunteered in civic and  social service agencies but also witnessed adults gleefully earning their livelihood as proprietors of private recycling services and sports camps for disabled children. They discovered that they could be self employed elder advocates, or environmental lobbyists in the private sector. One young man exuberantly reported on his work with a rock band who did a playground improvement project in each town they performed on tour. Another student, a pitcher on the high school baseball team, when asked if he hoped to play professionally, said his project coaching an inner city basketball team inspired him to maybe start a baseball camp for less privileged kids.  A girl whose project was testing river water for impurities, when asked if she wanted to be a researcher said, “No, I’m going to be an author.  I’ve already started writing fictional stories that teach a lesson about our precious natural resources.”

Sure, many of these kids will be job seekers but I’m ecstatic that some are already thinking like entrepreneurs. They know that they don’t have to have a job to do well financially and that volunteering or check writing aren’t the only ways to do good. These grads are heading out into the world knowing that they can make a difference by making a living as a social entrepreneur.  I’m still smiling.

It’s not always about changing the world

According to Rob Carpenter , CEO of Friendgiftr.com, being a social entrepreneur is about more than solving a global problem.

An article in youngupstarts.com quotes Carpenter:  “It’s not just the fact that you are your own boss, but it’s the notion that you have a profound opportunity to create new jobs, new industries, and re-make society,” says Carpenter. ”There’s nothing better than to introduce innovations that allow people to live better, more convenient lives – whether you’re offering them a product or service or trying to save the world.”

The biggest lesson he’s learnt as an entrepreneur is to be patient and persistent. “If you want to be an entrepreneur, run a company or nonprofit, make bold changes, and do all of the other incredibly difficult and challenging things that entrepreneurs do on a daily basis, you have to have the tenacity to hold on to your hope until one day your time arrives,” he shares. ”If you believe strongly enough in yourself, other people will start to believe in you, too.”

Carpenter advises other young startups to “Dream big, work hard, learn everyday, be true to yourself, and never give in. If you follow some variation of these themes, you will one day get to where you want to be and achieve your wildest dreams.”

If trying to change the world feels like an overwhelming goal for you right now, how can your business or your dreams create new jobs, new industries or impact positive change in your own community? As always, we’d love to hear our comments.

You can  learn more about Rob Carpenter  here: Friendgiftr.com.. For more on how you can start a business that makes a local or global  impact, CLICK HERE

Do you need a business degree or non-profit to make a difference?

There are reports nearly every day of social entrepreneurship programs being added at major universities worldwide. After decades of business schools turning out MBAs focused on corporate management, it’s refreshing to see the new entrepreneurs with goals of  driving social change and making a difference. But most of these graduates are starting up non-profits funded with large grants from government organizations, private alumni foundations  or corporations.

You don’t need a business degree, non-profit status or massive start-up capital to make a living and a difference in your community or the world. Sometimes starting small with just your knowledge and strong desire to drive change can make a significant impact in your own neighborhood and eventually you or those you influence will continue the momentum. You may  dream of making change on a universal scale but even starting in your own community you’ll set an example and create a template that can be duplicated throughout the world.

Do you have an idea for a product or service that could change lives on your block or in your town? What tiny step can you take now with the knowledge, equipment or resources you already have, that would make a difference to a few people? Can you get those first few people excited enough to each show a few others whatever it is you teach them? Some of the most successful businesses that had a wide impact were born as a dream in someone’s basement or garage.

From Wall Street to Social Entrepreneur

An article in the New York Daily News today featured several young Wall Street “casualties” who’ve taken advantage of the recession to begin new socially conscious businesses. Stephen Chen and Iris Chau started  GreenSoul Shoes,  selling sandals made from recycled tires by artisans in Third World countries.  Chau’s husband came up with the idea after seeing children playing barefoot in a Manila garbage dump.  For ever pair sold, they donate another to a needy child in the artisans’ communities.  GreenSoul isn’t only making a difference  in underdeveloped countries.  The company incorporates the social change aspect on the home front by using a facility that employs ex-cons, recovering addicts and formerly homeless to do their packing and shipping.

The article mentions other young social entrepreneurs including Tyler Gage and Dan MacCombie, two Brown grads  who are bringing a tea called Guayusa to America as an energy drink. A highly caffeinated, sweet tea that keeps you alert without the jitters, Guayusa is grown in  Ecuador and because it needs the shade of other trees to grow, it is helping to preserve the rain forest, and is supporting indigenous farmers. 

These and many other aspiring entrepreneurs, are turning their recent job loss into an opportunity to create a new economic model that makes doing good in the community or the world a part of doing well financially.  This recession is likely to birth some of the most successful and socially conscious entrepreneurs in history. 

How can you turn a job loss or down economy into an opportunity to take a stand and make a difference while you’re making a living.  Could this be the perfect time for you to, as Gandhi said, “be the change you wish to see in the world?” 

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Kudos to Kiva

If you aren’t familiar with KIVA, as an inspired, or aspiring, entrepreneur, do get to know this exciting example of social entrepreneurship.. Kiva.org is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to entrepreneurs around the globe. Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. 

 

Since inception in 2005, Kiva has primarily connected lenders with entrepreneurs from derdeveloping countries. 

The organization just launched an expansion program to offer loans to entrepreneurs in the US. The negative reaction of many US lenders shocked me.Some individuals who make micro loans through KIVA are making comments such as “the needs can’t truly compare to those in the Sudan, Cambodia, or Peru.”, that their loans should “help individuals whose business needs are much closer to the line of “basic necessities of life” or “Micro-loans work best where the problem is access to credit, which is not America’s problem” and “social services here are so much better than they are in developing countries.”.

Do the individuals who are making these statements not know about the working poor in this country, that we have thousands of single, working mothers living in their cars because even a full time job isn’t enough to pay rent and feed their children? Do they not know that in order to “have access to credit”  a borrower must appear to not need it and have a personal balance sheet that shows more assets than liabilities? That the point is to enable the working poor to be self sufficient and not depend on social services? 

I am a supporter of Kiva and a lend to entrepreneurs in developing countries,but I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to help our own aspiring entrepreneurs launch their small business. 

With the mass layoffs in recent months, why would anyone want to see an increase in social service claims rather than help our own citizens to be self sufficient?  The purpose of micro lending is to enable people to help themselves. Kiva isn’t about charity. It’s a boost to the “working” poor. 

I’ll continue to support the young startups in developing countries but not at the sacrifice of getting our own working poor into a position of self sufficiency. 

What is your reaction to this? Given the choice, would you lend to American start-ups or choose to send all your loans overseas? Do you agree with the critics that no one in the US is in true need of support to start their own business? I invite you to share your thoughts and opinions with our readers.

Entrepreneurs as Change Agents-Can you Make a Living and a Difference?

When friends and family ask me what I do, my description often includes the term “social entrepreneurs”. Typically, I see puzzled look and I explain that I help inspired entrepreneurs to make a difference in the world. This is frequently followed by, “you mean you work with non-profits?”. 

While some social entrepreneurs do run non-profit or not-for-profit organizations, and draw a nice salary as director, many social entrepreneurs are in private enterprise.  The terms “social entrepreneur” and “for profit” are not in conflict.  There’s a common misconception that making a difference means living on peanuts. That’s absolutely false.

Social entrepreneurs can make a substantial living, however their mission is to for “more than profit.”  Unlike “cause marketing” which is attracting customers by promoting the fact that a percentage of profit goes to a particular cause, social entrepreneurs are moved by a specific social problem and use entrepreneurial principles to aid in social change.  As opposed to a business deciding to donate to a cause, the cause is the impetus for the business.

According to an article in Business Week last fall, there are now 30,000 known social entrepreneurs producing $40 billion in revenue. The same article reported that President Obama  suggested starting a new government agency to help socially conscious startups gain more access to venture capital. 

Although we’d all love to make changes on a global scale, social entrepreneurs can make a positive impact by using their business acumen to facilitate change in their own community. 

Daily, I hear from entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs who’s priority is making a difference.  Coaches, counselors and other re-careering professionals report that the most common criteria  their clients express for an ideal livelihood is that it must have meaning. A traditional career counselor hears this and steers the client to social work or other helping professions.  The idea of entrepreneurship isn’t part of a career counselor’s toolbox. 

Do you have a strong pull to make a difference in your community or the world but no idea where to begin to build a business around it? Or are you already an entrepreneur looking for greater meaning in your business and your life but can’t figure out how to have both? Either way , you’ll not want to miss the summer “Inspired Livelihood Tele-Summit” where you’ll learn from entrepreneurs who are making a living, doing what they love and making a difference.

My Ideal Client is a Social Entrepreneur

While discussing my ideas about a new series of “Inspired Livelihood” Workshops that I am planning, Alice Barry asked me who I see as the ideal seminar attendee. This question got me thinking about my ideal client, who I’ve always described as an aspiring entrepreneur who knows her purpose but needs guidance in turning her passions into a profitable business aligned with her values. But there’s more. 

I realized that my closest friends and ideal clients share a common mission. They don’t just want to start a business and make a living. They know they are here to make a difference in one life, one community or the world. They are called to be an agent of change and they are ready to start NOW. 

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Ghandi

How do you Fuel your Passion and Serve the World?

People often associate Stephen Covey with organization and efficiency and while these are absolutely factors in ‘the Habits”, the line below from The 8th Habit spoke to me as someone who is a true true Social Entrepreneur. “When you engage in work that taps your talent and fuels your passion – that rises out of a great need in the world that you feel drawn by conscience to meet – therein lies your voice, your calling, your soul’s code.“  Many of us grew up with such a sense of responsibility that we forgot that serving, unless it is also fueling a passion, can be a disservice to ourselves and those we serve.  If your heart is not in your work,  the recipients of your labor feel it. But, all of us have at least one calling and when we are truly engaged in doing that “thing” and while  we may not realize the impact it has on others,  NOT doing it is with holding a gift from others. 

Over the next couple of months, we will be introducing you to Social Entrepreneurs who are not only doing work that feeds their soul but making a living while making a difference in their communities and in the world.