My turbulent adolescence occurred in the late 60s, with my figurative (and very briefly, actual) residence being the Haight / Ashbury District, the epicenter of the hippie culture. Then and there we insisted that all “businessmen” (not yet “business people” nor “entrepreneurs”) were bloodsucking ticks and leeches upon what might otherwise be our perfect society,… the villains who ate other people’s babies. But with time and experiences have come new insights and conclusions.
One of our many expressions at Bridge2Rwanda is: “All entrepreneurship is social.” I can already hear “Stop! Do you really contend that heroin smuggling, human trafficking, trading in blood diamonds, and child sweatshops are social entrepreneurship?”… which only establishes the obvious fact that within every instructive maxim, there are always extreme, fringe exceptions which some find so distracting that they risk missing the central point.
During these past five years residing in Rwanda (considerably beyond Haight / Ashbury), it has been my privilege to hang with great entrepreneurs, fascinating business titans who have amassed great wealth (sometimes counted in hundreds of millions of dollars). I have been fascinated to discover common characteristics among these entrepreneurs, most notably that great financial reward is not, and never was, their objective (except as was/is necessary to sustain and grow their enterprises). To my great surprise, these entrepreneurs have all been extraordinarily “artistic” in a sense, certainly very, very creative “problem solvers.” Some seem a bit geeky, others a bit egotistical, but each is holding (or has held) a Rubiks cube with an obsession to solve the puzzle,… to get it right,… better than anyone else. In doing so, they created great social value and many jobs. Society and the marketplace compensated them generously for what they created and delivered by their innovation and diligence.
And what are these entrepreneurs doing in Rwanda? They are looking for opportunities to give of their great wealth and talent the way they know best: To solve social problems and needs by entrepreneurial solutions that ultimately create sustainables business and jobs. Will they be rewarded for their efforts? Hopefully. If not, then they will not have solved the sustainability puzzle and the enterprise and its jobs will ultimately vaporize along with the entrepreneur. If they are successful and rewarded, they intend to simply “do it again” from the fruits of their success. The entrepreneurs with whom I have been privileged to work measure their success by solving extraordinarily complicated and difficult puzzles. Shallow critics who have accomplished nothing by comparison focus on the financial rewards awarded to the entrepreneur, rather than the value received from the entrepreneur.
ALL Entrepreneurship is Social
by Tom Allen
My turbulent adolescence occurred in the late 60s, with my figurative (and very briefly, actual) residence being the Haight / Ashbury District, the epicenter of the hippie culture. Then and there we insisted that all “businessmen” (not yet “business people” nor “entrepreneurs”) were bloodsucking ticks and leeches upon what might otherwise be our perfect society,… the villains who ate other people’s babies. But with time and experiences have come new insights and conclusions.
One of our many expressions at Bridge2Rwanda is: “All entrepreneurship is social.” I can already hear “Stop! Do you really contend that heroin smuggling, human trafficking, trading in blood diamonds, and child sweatshops are social entrepreneurship?”… which only establishes the obvious fact that within every instructive maxim, there are always extreme, fringe exceptions which some find so distracting that they risk missing the central point.
During these past five years residing in Rwanda (considerably beyond Haight / Ashbury), it has been my privilege to hang with great entrepreneurs, fascinating business titans who have amassed great wealth (sometimes counted in hundreds of millions of dollars). I have been fascinated to discover common characteristics among these entrepreneurs, most notably that great financial reward is not, and never was, their objective (except as was/is necessary to sustain and grow their enterprises). To my great surprise, these entrepreneurs have all been extraordinarily “artistic” in a sense, certainly very, very creative “problem solvers.” Some seem a bit geeky, others a bit egotistical, but each is holding (or has held) a Rubiks cube with an obsession to solve the puzzle,… to get it right,… better than anyone else. In doing so, they created great social value and many jobs. Society and the marketplace compensated them generously for what they created and delivered by their innovation and diligence.
And what are these entrepreneurs doing in Rwanda? They are looking for opportunities to give of their great wealth and talent the way they know best: To solve social problems and needs by entrepreneurial solutions that ultimately create sustainables business and jobs. Will they be rewarded for their efforts? Hopefully. If not, then they will not have solved the sustainability puzzle and the enterprise and its jobs will ultimately vaporize along with the entrepreneur. If they are successful and rewarded, they intend to simply “do it again” from the fruits of their success. The entrepreneurs with whom I have been privileged to work measure their success by solving extraordinarily complicated and difficult puzzles. Shallow critics who have accomplished nothing by comparison focus on the financial rewards awarded to the entrepreneur, rather than the value received from the entrepreneur.