According to Wikipedia, "a social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact s/he has on society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen groups, many work in the private and governmental sectors". With this definition in mind, your professional and personal contribution to social entrepreneurial initiatives can be extremely fulfilling both professionally and personally.

It’s an old saying …focus on concerns bigger than yourself and your individual concerns will be taken care of in the background at levels much higher than if you focused primarily on your individual concerns. A biblical reference is "give and it will be given back to you pressed down and running over". Of course, in this case, giving come in form of professional contribution not monetary.

The beauty of social entrepreneurship as opposed to what may be considered a traditional non-profit is the fact that social entrepreneurs deploy innovative entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. So, in addition to providing for the social good, the solutions are normally innovative and far-reaching …thus providing social entrepreneurs with many follow-on private sector venture opportunities after the social entrepreneurial project is finished. This is why, as you contribute professionally to social entrepreneurial initiatives, you can tap into this innovation or innovative professional setting and address your personal and professional concerns many time over.

Benefits come in several forms starting with how you can advance your socialization, professional and personal development skills. For example, social entrepreneurial initiatives often require you to interact and collaborate outside of a traditional corporate work environment or a traditional business development environment. This creates immediate opportunities for social, professional and personal growth. Think about it. Most people only interact professionally under the roof of a traditional company or employer and under the direction of a boss. What happens when you interact outside of these traditional confines? You learn, grow, expand your thinking, develop new socialization and professional skills sets and, most of all, help drive the development of new technology innovations and applications .

Another benefit comes from the fact that you position yourself to benefit from the global economy. Although many organizations and businesses focus on being the lowest cost producer, innovation is really the key to prospering long term in a global economy and, as noted above, social entrepreneurial initiative drive the development of new innovations and applications. To get better feel for this, consider the following Business Week quote: "Think of the world economy as a ladder. On the bottom rungs are the countries producing mainly textiles and other low-tech goods. Toward the top are the U.S. and other leading economies, which make sophisticated electronics, software, and pharmaceuticals. Up and down the middle rungs are all the other nations, manufacturing everything from still to autos to memory chips. Viewed in this way, economic development is simple: Everyone tries to climb the next rung. This works well if the topmost countries can create new industries and products. Such invention allows older industries to move overseas while fresh jobs are generated at home. But, if innovation stalls at the highest rung -- well, that's bad news for Americans, who must compete with lower-wage workers elsewhere" (Business Week columnist, Michael J. Mandel ).

Page 1 of 2 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 | Next