Contrast

The creators of the GSBI are true visionaries that have put a structure to their vision.  It is a maturing structure with growing pains, but that makes it that much more credible in my eyes and I suspect, the eyes of the other social entrepreneurs attending.

Jim Koch, co-founder of the GSBI program, laid out his case in the welcome BBQ when he said, (paraphrasing), "The challenges faced by the world are growing at a faster rate than our innovate solutions are growing to resolve them."  With this he laid out his case for the need to scale our social ventures.  While there is much discussion around the virtue and risk of scaling social enterprises, what I think is non-controversial is that for most social organizations there is a huge gap between the impact they have today and the impact they could have if they had a strategic plan and growth capital. For this reason the GSBI's focus is on helping each attendee develop a workable business model and a plan for attracting growth capital.

On day 11 of the program, we presented our business plans to 200 people, including venture capitalists, silicon valley executives, academics, interested citizens.  Watching my 15 colleagues I was amazed at the quality of the visions and presentations, as was the audience.  Such an environment of enthusiasm, awe, hope.

The following day, on our way to the closing ceremony dinner we walked by the new library and saw flowers piled up near the entrance.  We were told that a young student had jumped to his death just after we walked by that exact spot the day before, chatting and laughing, all feeling so relieved that our presentations had gone well. 

We stood there for a minute in shock.  The contrast was night and day... hope and despair.  My mind instantly flashed to a couple years back when my cousin lept out of this world, causing so much pain to our family.  At the core of the GSBI and Santa Clara University and the Jesuit ethos is empathy and at that moment I truly felt empathy  for the young student's family.  The contrast was stark... night and day... hope and despair.

I reflected that this young student's personal despair was a microcosm of the world's despair.  And here we were, an enthusiastic bunch tackling the world's pain, an island of hope in a turbulent sea.

As Jim put it, the problems - the source of the despair - are growing faster than our solutions.  But what I've always known and what was reinforced after the last 2 weeks, is that this doesn't have to be so.  We can create a more equitable, just world.  In fact, we have to.  And I'm not talking about a pie in the sky, "everything is rosy and easy and the world is perfect" vision... I'm talking about hard work - very hard work. Sacrifice. Grinding it out, but always with a smile on your face because you know this is the only way forward and because you feel that the greater good is something worth struggling for.

Through immense difficulties, we continue on and struggle to build the better world we all want to live in.

Education section of my resume should now read:

Undergrad - Berkeley

Graduate - MIT

School of Life - Santa Clara University