I trust you’ve already been to my About me page and you have a pretty good picture of my purpose and what I intend to do with this site, so here is some more detail on my vision for creating a social entrepreneurship movement….
But first, a little context.
My business and my brand are based on building a lasting legacy based on ethical behaviour and positive social influence. My goal is to grow my business by taking the high road and, at the same time, doing my part to help others sew the seeds to rid our world of what ails us – obesity, poverty, disease, and the destruction of our planet.
The Need for Social Entrepreneurship
My feeling is that it will become increasingly important for small businesses to take active roles in this regard because we are the drivers of the world economy. Socially responsible entrepreneurs driven by social entrepreneurship, will become the major sources of funding to support aid and innovation to make changes as governments are forced to constrain spending just to sustain major cash siphons such as healthcare and aging infrastructure sustainment.
Over the next decade, without the usual funding from the private sector large businesses (who also face their own financial crises), research for cures such as cancer for example, will stagnate and aid to fight hunger in our own and in third world countries will dry up as will efforts to fight obesity and poverty.
The new economy will need to find ways to maintain the momentum of all the good that is being done and will undoubtedly turn to us, the new wave of ethical and empathetic entrepreneurs, for help.
Social entrepreneurship will drive this change.
A “Pay it Forward” type of mindset will become more and more common as a new generation of successful entrepreneurs appear. As a result, positive social change will also follow, fueled by the power of attraction. Before long a cycle will appear of growth, sharing, more growth, and more sharing, etc. as like-minded entrepreneurs band together to create great wealth and great things together.
Since I strongly believe that people are inherently good and successful people want to share their success, there will be a growing movement for more of us to make positive change.
Sounds utopic? Perhaps, but what is the alternative, really? Sitting back and waiting for our problems to go away? I don’t think so…
Vision of a Social Entrepreneurship Movement.
By 2020, our mutual collaboration to create wealth and give back to society will establish us as the primary drivers of change behind the eradication of cancer, the elimination of childhood obesity, a greener planet, and the fight against poverty wherever we live.
My Mission
My mission is to create the environment and the momentum behind this movement, so that like-minded socially responsible entrepreneurs have a place and the means to collaborate to create wealth on the one hand while also making significant change to improve our society on the other.
This site is dedicated to helping those of you who are driven by leaving a legacy of positive change. I hope you find it inspiring and educational.
Here you will find stories, case-studies, examples and first hand accounts about who is doing what related to social entrepreneurship. As we grow in numbers, I will continue to add functionality and resources to support this vision.
Please go ahead and leave you comments, impressions, suggestions below, and I look forward to collaborating with you!
Living with Purpose. Live Fulfilled.
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Great site Patrick, I look forward to watching it grow. I’ve downloaded my Lifestyle Face Lift and will give you some feedback when I’ve gone through it. I hope to be able to contribute a story or case study of a new venture I’m working on, but it’s under wraps at the moment. Hopefully to be unveiled early in the New Year, lots of work to do yet.
Best wishes for your continued success
Pat
Thanks for visiting and Tweeting, Pat! I know you’ll enjoy the Face Lift and I’m looking forward to what you’ve got coming down the pipe!
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thank you, this web page definitely made it easier for me with a writing theme for my college class at MSU
Cool! 🙂
Very Nice website. I just finished mine and i was looking for some ideas and your website gave me some. The website was developed by you?
Thanks
Sorry your url doesn’t work. I use the wordpress Twenty-Ten theme. Good luck!
I have developed a blog and I am trying to find a new template.Yours looks pretty decent! You could visit my website and tell me your opinion!
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This account of one man’s efforts to revise the defintion of “entrepreneur” demonstrates the capacity of what can be achieved from small beginnings. Bill Drayton has created a “consulting” firm that girdles the world. Creator and promoter of Ashoka, a foundation dedicated to social change, Drayton uses a highly selective arrangement to locate and encourage people desiring social change. Their efforts, rarely, if ever, depicted in either mainstream media or even specialty publications, are here explained and endorsed. As is Drayton’s unorthodox methods. Yet those methods, and the people adapting them to local conditions, have been demonstrably successful. They need further study and application.
Drayton, through Bornstein’s depiction, has redefined the term “entrepreneur” from its narrow economic framework into a broader and more flexible environment. Money “profit” is no longer the basis for evaluation. Instead, how widely can a new idea and its promoter[s] affect betterment of the people shunted aside by pure capitalism? Is the multinational the sole or even the major means for offering employment and economic gain? Must the values implied by major infusions of capital, often with restraints tied to the investment, be limited to what firms successful in developed countries decide? Drayton argues that instead of “top-down” economic structures, change for the better should come about by local initiative. How far this idea has spread is exemplified by the map opening the book. From Brazil to Bangladesh, people with drive, patience and talent have made, and are making substantive changes within their communities, regions and entire nations.
The book provides real examples of people who identified a problem, then set about to improve conditions that had come to be accepted by social inertia. His opening example, that of Fabio Ruiz of Palmares, demonstrates how effective one person can be. Ruiz, living in a depressed area in Brazil, discovered how greatly something most of us take for granted, electrical power, could influence a local economy. Ruiz observed the condition of the rice farmers in the state. A steady supply of water would allow growth of successful crops. Erratic natural supplies, often interdicted by highland farmers, meant turning to groundwater supplies. Groundwater means pumps and petrol-driven pumps were expensive. Ruiz instituted an inexpensive method of distributing electricity throughout the area. The farmers provided the minimal investment and performed much of the labour. As electrification spread, farmers produced steady crop returns, reaching a level that led to marketing co-ops and economic independence. The programme meant dealing with banks, bureaucracy and competiton. Ruiz and his associates doggedly promoted their success, finally seeing it adapted to other regions. It’s an object lesson for many rural farmers in the developing world.
Drayton’s methods require a draconian approach to assessing ideas, programmes and the people behind them. Once an idea is presented, the obstacles and restraints must be planned for. A good suggestion isn’t enough. The people seeking Ashoka’s support must demonstrate they can follow through and adapt to changing conditions or outright opposition. From Brazil, through Africa, into the Subcontinent of India and its neighbours, back through Europe and North America, his evalution teams are constantly assessing, inquiring, and selecting those individuals and their plans for improvement. Money, of course, must be stretched to the limit. Government funding is a bane to most NGOs, since too many conditions are generally tied to resource allocation. Drayton’s entrepreneurs must demonstrate their proposals are good enough to use with local resources. Only that way can they be launched into a project with Ashoka support. These projects aren’t limited to developing countries alone. Bornstein shows how these examples may be applied to any community feeling their social advancement is under restraint. The models are clearly spelled out in detail. The only thing lacking in your community is the individual who can clearly identify the problems and find innovative ways of implementing the solutions. Is that you? [stephen a. haines – Ottawa, Canada]