Are you a social entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurship has always been a self-centered concept since its introduction to man.  Even in business schools, you can bet your last underwear if you can find one textbook that tells you that entrepreneurship is not about "personal gain."

But not with social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship starts with "unresolved issues of the society" starting with people being the solution themselves and mobilizing them to understand the problem and solve the problem individually or collectively as a community. In so doing they don't only benefit from the effort, they become "entrepreneurs of social change."

This I learned through the kindness of one avid reader who just sent me this touching video/documentary about social entrepreneurship. The video entitled "The New Heroes" is produced by PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) in the US which is a four-hour series, hosted by movie icon Robert Redford. The video illustrates the dramatic events and triumph of twelve social visionaries who bring uniquely insightful and empowering solutions to the most intractable social problems around the world and where change is possible when an innovative idea is coupled with optimism, a strategy for action, and a passionate belief in the human potential.

One story that I liked was that of Albina Ruiz a student of industrial engineering in Peru who after her thesis came up with a community-based waste collection system. She started with a small community in El Cono Norte which had problems of disposing garbage since the municipality can only process half of the 600 metric tons of garbage daily. The other half were left tossed in streets, rivers and vacant lots, causing serious health problems as well as creating an ugly face to the environment and the community that many residents found dispiriting.

To cut the story short, she invited micro-entrepreneurs chosen from the community — to take charge of collecting and processing the garbage as she helped in the marketing in the neighborhood to patronize the private garbage processing center for a small fee per month. With this idea she solved both problems of unemployment and garbage in one stone. And that one small project became a model for waste disposal in both urban and rural communities in Peru and was emulated in other parts of Latin America.

Another touching story was of Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy or "Dr. V" and David Green who embarked on what they call "compassionate capitalism." The idea is to offer a low cost sight and hearing solutions to millions of people in India with cataract and hearing problems.

Dr. V. came to the conclusion as a young man that "intelligence and capability are not enough. There must be the joy of doing something beautiful." So instead of retiring at the age of 65, Dr. V. mortgaged his home and opened a hospital to perform free or low-cost cataract surgery — if left untreated can lead to blindness — on poor Indians. In his first year, Dr. V. performed 5,000 surgeries.

Green was inspired by Dr. V.'s belief that "humans were put on Earth not get to rich, but to serve." He noticed that the number of surgeries Dr. V. could perform was limited by the high cost of replacement lenses — $150.00 a pair. When Green discovered that the actual cost of making the lenses could, with a creative approach, be reduced to just $10.00 a pair, he convinced Dr. V. to open a lens factory which was followed by a hearing aid factory also for a very minimal cost.  

According to Green, he is convinced that western capitalism has failed to grasp opportunities in the developing world because of a focus on extracting the highest possible profit from every item sold. He says "compassionate capitalism" extracts a small amount of profit from each item sold, but generates a very high sales volume. In the process, it is possible to make available critical goods and services — like eye care — to billions of people.

Unlike traditional business entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs primarily seek to generate "social value" rather than profits. Their work is focused not only towards immediate, small-scale effects, but sweeping, long-term change.

Are you one of them?

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