Social Entrepreneurship
This was a foreword for a manual on social entrepreneurship written way back in 2005.
"Some men see things as they are and say, 'Why?' I dream things that never were and say, 'Why not?' "-Robert Kennedy
The social sector is full of stories of how in spite of all odds some individuals rise above the occasion and come up with innovative solutions. Although in the corporate world such stories are well documented and provide interesting case study, only recently there has been an effort to recognize the efforts of individuals who go beyond the immediate problem to fundamentally change communities, societies, the world- whom we know today as ‘social entrepreneurs’.
In 1991, a few young undergraduates in a small town called Jorhat, located in the Northeastern part of India, over some hot cup of tea were just casually discussing about the state of environment in the world and Assam in particular. Those were the days when television had spread across homes in India and all of a sudden the small town became a part of the global village. Suddenly there was this urge amongst the young group of people; can we do something to ‘change the world’. And so was born ‘Friends of the Environment’, an association of students and research scholars from Jorhat, who wanted to act as catalyst to create awareness amongst people in general about the environmental malaise, the state of Assam is facing and in particular change attitudes about conservation. But the dream that started with a hot cup of tea didn’t last long. After a few years of undertaking some trend setting initiatives and gaining recognition, it lost steam mid-way and died a natural death.
Why I am quoting this example is that, I was a part of this group and to me this story has some interesting learning’s and helped me in my later years when I co-founded another not-profit, MITRA Technology Foundation, again while in college.
Number 1: Just dreaming is not enough. Successful entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Pierre Omidyar, Bill Strickland and Bunker Roy were successful not because they had a wonderful idea, but they had the power of situational understanding and consequence thinking. The importance of consequence thinking is very critical for an entrepreneur. It helps us to look beyond the immediate deliverable of a task and it is about asking who will be impacted by my work, what is the end state? In the above example, although we had a wonderful dream, all of us were quite apprehensive about the end state.
The second learning is the need for perspective. This, to me is ability of an entrepreneur to understand ‘Why I am doing what I am doing? This can be better explained by taking the example above. We started the organization because we wanted to do something for a cause that we felt very close to. We had a very narrow view of what we were doing vis-à-vis the larger goal. This can be summarized by the story of two people who were laying bricks. A passer by asked the first one as to what he was doing. He replied, "I am laying bricks". He asked the second one. He replied, "I am building a temple".
The third learning is that if you want to ‘change the world’, you need to take risks. To the young group, finding a job after graduation was the least resistant path to follow then be termed crazy by your friends and relatives for trying to fulfill your dream. As social entrepreneur we need to seize opportunities and don't let others' expectations keep you from fulfilling your own expectations for yourself.
Number 4: First with the head and then with the heart. To be successful, your dream should be driven not from your heart but from your head. For the young group, the dream was more driven from their heart. The best example is to visualize what you want to be written when you die, and then work backwards.
Number 5: Get a mentor. This is very important for young people who want to pursue a dream. The road of a social entrepreneur is filled with potholes and like a Formula Car race you don’t know what to expect in the next lap. Times can be very frustrating and during these times you need someone who can help you take the road less traveled with less potholes. Today sometimes when I look back at ‘Friends of the Environment’, I think that may be if we could have someone who was able to give us the right perspective, we would have been successful.
Finally, learning. It is a life long journey for a social entrepreneur and at the end of each journey there is a new one to go. We could learn a lot by just listening to other people, reading, traveling and by recognizing the value and culture of different people.
In my later efforts with MITRA and now with Com-Mart, a start-up to help improve lives of million workers in developing countries, I was made wiser by the above learning’s. So to me this actually will be the last observation, to take failures as the stepping steps to success. In your lives you will in many occasions be frustrated. Because the work you are doing is just not creating a product or services to benefit a few people, but looking at bringing systemic changes to some of the most difficult problems that the world is facing. And it needs tremendous courage and self-conviction to reach that goal.
This manual will guide you through the different laps in your race to bring changes. This is not an end in itself. It’s just a guide. Ultimately you are the driver and you are in control.
As told by a Chinese proverb, ‘When you reach the last page, close it’. Because your calling has come and its time for the chequered flag to fly high. Best wishes.
Rahul Barkataky
"Some men see things as they are and say, 'Why?' I dream things that never were and say, 'Why not?' "-Robert Kennedy
The social sector is full of stories of how in spite of all odds some individuals rise above the occasion and come up with innovative solutions. Although in the corporate world such stories are well documented and provide interesting case study, only recently there has been an effort to recognize the efforts of individuals who go beyond the immediate problem to fundamentally change communities, societies, the world- whom we know today as ‘social entrepreneurs’.
In 1991, a few young undergraduates in a small town called Jorhat, located in the Northeastern part of India, over some hot cup of tea were just casually discussing about the state of environment in the world and Assam in particular. Those were the days when television had spread across homes in India and all of a sudden the small town became a part of the global village. Suddenly there was this urge amongst the young group of people; can we do something to ‘change the world’. And so was born ‘Friends of the Environment’, an association of students and research scholars from Jorhat, who wanted to act as catalyst to create awareness amongst people in general about the environmental malaise, the state of Assam is facing and in particular change attitudes about conservation. But the dream that started with a hot cup of tea didn’t last long. After a few years of undertaking some trend setting initiatives and gaining recognition, it lost steam mid-way and died a natural death.
Why I am quoting this example is that, I was a part of this group and to me this story has some interesting learning’s and helped me in my later years when I co-founded another not-profit, MITRA Technology Foundation, again while in college.
Number 1: Just dreaming is not enough. Successful entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Pierre Omidyar, Bill Strickland and Bunker Roy were successful not because they had a wonderful idea, but they had the power of situational understanding and consequence thinking. The importance of consequence thinking is very critical for an entrepreneur. It helps us to look beyond the immediate deliverable of a task and it is about asking who will be impacted by my work, what is the end state? In the above example, although we had a wonderful dream, all of us were quite apprehensive about the end state.
The second learning is the need for perspective. This, to me is ability of an entrepreneur to understand ‘Why I am doing what I am doing? This can be better explained by taking the example above. We started the organization because we wanted to do something for a cause that we felt very close to. We had a very narrow view of what we were doing vis-à-vis the larger goal. This can be summarized by the story of two people who were laying bricks. A passer by asked the first one as to what he was doing. He replied, "I am laying bricks". He asked the second one. He replied, "I am building a temple".
The third learning is that if you want to ‘change the world’, you need to take risks. To the young group, finding a job after graduation was the least resistant path to follow then be termed crazy by your friends and relatives for trying to fulfill your dream. As social entrepreneur we need to seize opportunities and don't let others' expectations keep you from fulfilling your own expectations for yourself.
Number 4: First with the head and then with the heart. To be successful, your dream should be driven not from your heart but from your head. For the young group, the dream was more driven from their heart. The best example is to visualize what you want to be written when you die, and then work backwards.
Number 5: Get a mentor. This is very important for young people who want to pursue a dream. The road of a social entrepreneur is filled with potholes and like a Formula Car race you don’t know what to expect in the next lap. Times can be very frustrating and during these times you need someone who can help you take the road less traveled with less potholes. Today sometimes when I look back at ‘Friends of the Environment’, I think that may be if we could have someone who was able to give us the right perspective, we would have been successful.
Finally, learning. It is a life long journey for a social entrepreneur and at the end of each journey there is a new one to go. We could learn a lot by just listening to other people, reading, traveling and by recognizing the value and culture of different people.
In my later efforts with MITRA and now with Com-Mart, a start-up to help improve lives of million workers in developing countries, I was made wiser by the above learning’s. So to me this actually will be the last observation, to take failures as the stepping steps to success. In your lives you will in many occasions be frustrated. Because the work you are doing is just not creating a product or services to benefit a few people, but looking at bringing systemic changes to some of the most difficult problems that the world is facing. And it needs tremendous courage and self-conviction to reach that goal.
This manual will guide you through the different laps in your race to bring changes. This is not an end in itself. It’s just a guide. Ultimately you are the driver and you are in control.
As told by a Chinese proverb, ‘When you reach the last page, close it’. Because your calling has come and its time for the chequered flag to fly high. Best wishes.
Rahul Barkataky
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