Social Entrepreneurship

Presentation Outline on Social Entrepreneurship (2012, rev. 2023)

Leadership School Talk

What is Social Entrepreneurship?

1. Social Entrepreneurship has become a popular term these days and has many definitions. For today, let’s use a simple definition: making and leaving the world a better place by identifying and actualizing potential for good. In short, social entrepreneurs aim to promote greater happiness and better society.
2. Social entrepreneurship is an applied art. It starts with a realistic assessment of what is possible.  One way to look at it, to use Alinsky’s formula, turning a plight into a problem into an issue that can be solved.  (As opposed to the the regressive cycle – plight – complaining – apathy – deeper plight – helplessness).   Social entrepreneurship looks to the future rather than the past.  It is about results, not about voicing grievances, settling scores, selling grand schemes, or chasing wild dreams. Bold talk and daring alone rarely translate into good results.  Good results take hard work:  preparation, rational assessment, knowledge, skills and insight.  Rarely do any lasting good results come from doing the right things for the wrong reasons.

3. Social entrepreneurship builds on a practical and common sense view of society and our place in it. Akin to Aristotle’s common sense view that humans are not isolated individuals, but are by nature social beings – Zoon politikon.  We get better at most things by practice.  Likewise, we become more effective humans by practice. Being human is a team activity, like a team sport or dance.  Humans need a playing field, դրսեւորման դաշտ.   We learn the skills, rules, steps, through practice. Then, one day, our actions become more effective, even effortless, like second nature. When there are good players or good dancers in the mix, they tend to improve everyone’s performance. To actualize our potential, it’s not enough to be good only to family and friends.  Especially in our interconnected age, we need to be able to understand and deal with the wider world.
4. We have one world. We are in the same boat. As John Donne famously wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself.” Although in the short run some see life as a zero-sum game of winners and losers, in the long run, we fail or succeed together. We constantly engage in give and take with each other, society and the world. Yet even a little reflection will convince us that we have received much more than we can ever give: so many good things from past generations and our family, friends and society. The question is whether we will maintain and create a good environment for ourselves and others and whether we will leave the world better or worse for others and future generations. This is a choice we each must make: to live responsibly, to lead good, productive lives.

5. Social Entrepreneurship is a Mindset. Social entrepreneurs keep their eyes wide open.  They are self-aware and aware of others and their surroundings.  It has to do with how we educate ourselves to deal with the world, the gist of which is captured in a saying that is more than 2500 years old: “Learning without thinking is useless. Thinking without learning is dangerous.” – Confucius.

• • The world’s a complicated, wondrous, often incomprehensible place. Although we have our sciences and theories, we have yet to figure out why or how it all came about, and certainly none of us individually, and probably not even collectively, could re-create it all ourselves, let alone create it from scratch. There is much that works very well, yet there is always something that is broken and needs fixing.  We can’t fix everything, not enough time, resources, know how.  But that doesn’t mean we should not fix something, if we can.  Nor should we break something, if it we can’t improve on it.   Frustration and unrealistic assessments of one’s ability to improve things are dangers to be avoided. The first commandment God gave to Adam is “Tend the garden,” later memorably adopted by Voltaire in the last line of his satire, Candide, “Il faut cultiver notre jardin.” (We must cultivate our garden).  Gardening is a metaphor often used by great thinkers, since it requires skill, patience, humility and respect for nature. As a poem American schoolchildren used to learn, said, “I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree.  . . . Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.”  Human technology and knowledge have made life much more understandable and, in many ways, easier (and sometimes more dangerous), but there is still something wondrous about nature and all that we have not and cannot create (or fix) on our own.  The inexplicable and wondrous call for ingenuity, patience and humility.
  • solutions are temporary, problems are forever. The world and times keep changing, so old solutions stop working and demand new solutions.  Even the flood couldn’t straighten out the world.  The world is  permanently broken or breaking down, crooked, ծուռ.  When you see something that is malfunctioning, but has not been fixed, ask why?   When you see something that is working, ask how?  Don’t be a perfectionist, but strive to improve things.  The best is the enemy of the good.
  • avoid repeating others’ mistakes – good intentions are not enough. One needs to be well-informed and have good judgment before advocating or taking action.  While “paralysis through analysis” is to be avoided, good intentions are not enough, and poor planning or short-sightedness are not an excuse.
  • avoid being used as a tool – This is another pitfall of well-meaning, inexperienced activists. It is easy to fall into the trap of anxiety – false hopes, flailing, grasping at straws, or even worse, the trap of ambition – Lord of the Rings.  Often people feel a need for recognition, which makes them susceptible to manipulation and they fall into the trap of “noble” self-sacrifice for someone else’s half-baked scheme.
  • two calls to action from Gandhi and a word of encouragement from Mother Teresa:
    • “The difference between what we can do and what we do would solve most of the problems in the world” – Gandhi.
    • Start with your self “be the change you wish to see in the world,” practice what you preach.
    • Don’t be deterred by nay-sayers, “do what’s right anyway” – Mother Teresa. This is not an excuse for recklessness or callous disregard for others.
  • All actions, even the best intentioned and most well-thought out, carry risks. As the Hippocratic oath says, “First, do no harm.” This is not an excuse for doing nothing, but rather a reminder that most actions have hidden costs and risks.  We need to be care-ful, that is, full of care, not only toward ourselves, but also toward others and the environment.  Sometimes we are so focused on the “good” we aim to accomplish, we end up doing more harm than good, because we are blinded to unintended negative consequences, collateral damage, externalities (costs our actions impose on others – e.g., pollution, public debt, harm to the environment, unfair playing field, barriers to entry, disadvantaging others and privileging/favoring ourselves or our friends, without, or even with, merit).  One must always consider at whose expense one is achieving “success,” and more generally, at whose expense one is living “comfortably” or winning at the “game of life.”   Remember, life is not a game, real people often get hurt when we act without thinking, considering the common good, or taking the good of or harm to others while pursuing “our ideals.”
  • Finally a word of consolation.  We often do not succeed, but we can learn a lot from our failures if we are honest with ourselves, instead of looking for other people or things to blame.  In any event, the truth wins in the end.  Nothing can last that is not on a solid foundation.  Forced, unnatural “solutions” unravel and often do more harm than good.

6. Youth – the most exhilirating and dangerous time of our lives. Since most of the audience here today is quite young, a few observations from history and life:
   • when we’re young we often swing between feeling powerless and frustrated victims and feeling like invincible rebels. That makes us easy prey for discontentment, quick fixes, blame-games and witch hunts.  Also, just because something has worked elsewhere, does not mean it is appropriate or will work in our given situation.  What worked one place can backfire in another.  There is no “one-size fits all” in social entrepreneurship.

   • when we’re young, we’re impatient, inexperienced, so we look for short-cuts. Remember the Greek myth about Icarus, who flew too high too fast, only to crash and burn when the sun melted his wings. Humility is key. “To know what you know and what you do not know is true knowledge,” as the ancients from Socrates and Confucius said.  If it were easy to fix, it probably would have been done already.  It is unlikely that you are the first to notice that something is broken, and it is unlikely that you are the first to think of a way to fix it.  This is where humility and preparation, self-development and self-discipline are essential.  Rarely are there easy routes to achieving anything worthwhile. Timing, planning, and resources (including the right team) matter, and action with insufficient preparation rarely succeeds and usually does more harm than good.  Good ideas are a “dime a dozen” and “talk is cheap.” More often than not, good will, opportunities, and resources are wasted, people get hurt, ideals are shattered, innocence is lost, and things are worse than before. When walking down a muddy street or standing beneath a crumbing wall, remember every action has an opportunity cost, that is, when you do one thing, you at least at that moment are giving up the chance to do something else that may be more productive.  In short, look before you leap.  If you wait for the right moment, opportunity or cause (what the Greeks called kairos – timing is important in life), you might be able to do something more effective or useful than getting your feet muddy or having the wall to fall on your head.  It often makes more sense to go around or change destination, until a better way can be found.
   • A wise sociologist and political philosopher, Eric Hoffer, wrote, “For men to plunge headlong into an undertaking of vast change, they must be intensely discontented yet not destitute, and they must have the feeling that by possession of some potent doctrine, infallible leader or some new technique they have access to a source of irresistible power. Finally they must be wholly ignorant of the difficulties involved in their vast undertaking. Experience is a handicap.”   A word to the wise: when we act out of anger (or any other strong emotion, like fear, resentment, envy, greed, pride), euphoria, exuberance, without sufficient understanding, or just because of peer pressure, or blind faith in ourselves, our group or our leaders, the project is not likely to end well.  Is there a way to avoid bad outcome?  Yes, in a word:  Awareness.  Self-awareness and awareness of the situation around us.  When we find ourselves in such situations, we need to take a deep breath; to stop, look and listen before proceeding. Often this is not easy, especially when we are swept up in the urgency of the moment.  It takes self-discipline, honesty, and often courage to step back and take a hard look at what’s going on, not only on the surface but behind the scenes and beyond the present.  Social entrepreneurship requires perspective, thoroughly understanding the situation, plans, people, and potential good and bad consequences of various courses of action.
   • Focus on the potential good, but never forget the potential harm. It’s easy to get carried away and be blinded to risks and dangers. Consider who can get hurt. Due to lack of experience, the young (and even the old and frustrated) sometimes feel invincible or we feel like we handle whatever harm comes our way and its worth the cost. Even if we are willing to suffer injuries, what about other people that may get hurt?  What about those we cannot protect and whose injuries cannot be fixed?  At whose expense are we pursuing our “ideals”?  Can we take responsibility for the harm we may cause?
   • As noted earlier, humans are social beings. This brings many advantages, we draw on accumlated experience, learn from each other, and protect each other. But sometimes we act with a herd mentality.  While humans of all ages are susceptible to herd behavior, when we are young we more vulnerable to being misled or moved emotionally, or being carried away by smooth-talker, influencer, bully, or peer-pressure. There is a danger of becoming a tool for someone else’s ulterior plan.  Part of growing up is taking responsibility for one’s actions. As the novelist Dickens wrote in the opening line of David Copperfield, it is up to us to decide whether we will “become the author of our own lives”, and we may not know until much later in life what kind of life or how much of our life we have authored.  Humans are a story-telling creatures.  We write our lives through the decisions we make and the stories we tell ourselves and others about who we are and how we fit into the world.  In the course of life, we have many roles, we need to define them in a way that is appropriate to our resources, situations, values, character, goals.  Otherwise, we face delusion, failure, compromise, harm to ourselves and others.
   • Buddha said – “like an irrigator that waters his fields, like an archer that takes aim, like a carpenter that shapes wood, shape your life” – as the old saying goes, measure twice, cut once. We often cannot put humpty dumpty back together again (or get a “fresh start” from the status quo ante – the way things were before we embarked on an unsuccessful enterprise), so be careful.  It’s usually harder to pick up the pieces than it is to prevent or avert the damage.
   • Before condemning others, put yourself in their shoes, and consider, “there, but for the grace of God, go I.” Empathy, even with those you strongly disagree with, is a key to insightful and effective action.
7. Character is destiny. There is only one you. True, we are all shaped by our environment, family, friends, institutions, society.  But who we become is ultimately our individual responsibility and will depend on who we choose to be, whom we choose to associate with (follow, work with or lead), which values, ideals and causes we choose to serve.  These form our character, and character influences how we act, react, and live. The Armenian language provides a clue as to how all these pieces fit together.
   • happiness – երջանկութիւն is related օրհնեալ  and երանի.   blessed and blissful/fortunate.
   • Etymologically, these Armenian words are related to Indo-European roots meaning ‘love’ and ‘freedom’ – friend and free in English, Russian priyatel. It takes effort to be authors of our own destiny, to take responsibility for our lives and those around us, so that we use our freedom in such a way that we are loved and love others, in short, that we bring happiness and blessing to our lives and the lives of those around us, making and leaving the world a better place.