My motivation is to have World Kindness. After promoting Kindness in the workplaces where I live, I got a lot of "What's kindness got to do with business?" It's a duh to me.

Kindness is a 1st choice before you can become a social entrepreneur. I don't think you have to be a Social Entrepreneur to be Kind, I suppose it helps. I have a whole list of things how Kindness benefits.. now i just keep my blog going, to promote kindness. One day my dream will come true.

And no, I am not a non-profit. This is one thing that bothers me about being a Social Entrepreneur - you have to be a non-profit?? You can do good things even great things and not be a non-profit to make a difference in this world.You can even be for profit.

It just takes one person to perform one kind act at a time. I believe if we all(everyone) performed 3 random acts of kindness per day we would have world peace or world kindness in one year. It's very doable. Are you up for the challenge?

This is my motivation and my soapbox.

Motivation for change has to come from your heart.

Mari-Lyn Hudson www.love4.wordpress.com

Greetings Charles, What motivates me to continue with my social entrepreneurial efforts? Briefly:- The opportunity to do some good to others,providing I am prepared to step out of my comfort zone,fear of failure and feelings of total inadequacy to meet those demands in terms of the effort and abilities required; the satisfaction that came from achieving goals in collaboration with individuals who I met at just the right time, whose corporate clout made thos goals possible.Kind regards.

This seemed surprisingly like the twin (and obverse) of the other thread "What Keeps you Up at Night?" until I saw that both threads had been initiated by Hipbone!

Friend Prakash (= light/illumination in Sanskrit and several other Indian languages) is right: Hipbone asks Big questions! :-)

"Another world is possible"

this thought keeps me up well past midnight, yet finds me at my desk the next morning.

Currently I'm in the past-midnight phase, but a few hours from now, I will return to the piece I'm writing on the crucial role of mother-tongue medium education in achieving the UN's goal of Education for All.

Thank you for the provocative theme.

Hi Charles- what motivates a social entrepreneur is similar to what motivates parents to protect their children, patriots to uphold the ethic of their country, artists to edify and inspire our visions in the ongoing dialogue... showing how much we care is important. It is a good business decision, too.

Caring about what we do and being mindful of how our businesses impact the rest, helps us continue to thrive, both personally and professionally.

Social Entrepreneurs are reinventing the face of business by offering idealogical commodities, in addition to goods and services, as a way to stay relevant in a challenging economy. The new model being forged is a powerful tool for change and the benefits to social justice, planetary ecology, and a healthier global economy are all part of the motivation. Its contribution to a more meaningful life experience cannot be overlooked. There is much to be done and it all matters...

best regards, Nicki Cutean Austin, Texas bebebobov@sbcglobal.net

Hi Charles,

Nice to see you again.

When I started volunteering with kids during college, 40 years ago, my motivation was no where near as deep as it is now after 40 years of involvement, learning, networking, etc.

I have a much more defined sense of purpose now than then, because of what I've done and what I've learned. This was not a sudden change from being unmotivated, to super motivated. It was gradual, and I did not even notice it was happening. However, as I look back I can see that as I grew my level of involvment, I gained more confidence, and earned more rewards (such as meeting new people, having a child or a parent say "thanks", or recieving recognition from the CEO of my company). This knowledge, and these rewards, encouraged greater involvement and over time, I was my own judge and able to look in the mirror at the end of a day and say "good job".

However, there is also another motivator. I need to eat and take care of my family. In the initial years of my leadership I held a full time job at the company where I was growing my volunteer involvement. Thus, my financial needs were taken care of by my work and I could give as much of my time as a volunteer as I wanted to. In 1990 when I left the corporate job, I turned the volunteer program into a non profit, and began to raise money to pay my own salary, as well as the other expenses of the program.

I've been doing this for 18 years since then and every day I'm faced with the responsibility of finding money to pay my staff, my rent, the program expenses and my own salary. Thus, my motivation to innovate new solutions and new ways to help non profits obtain these resources is driven by my own self interest.

Thus, I have a dual motivation, which drives me every day. I'm lucky in that I'm doing work I love. That should be a fuel for anyone.

Hi Mari-Lyn:

And thanks for opening up this conversation. You wrote:

QUOTE: I am not a non-profit. This is one thing that bothers me about being a Social Entrepreneur - you have to be a non-profit?? You can do good things even great things and not be a non-profit to make a difference in this world. You can even be for profit. :UNQUOTE

I am happy to be able to confirm that you do not have to be non-profit to be social entrepreneurial. Here's the definition from the Institute for Social Entrepreneurs

QUOTE: Social entrepreneurship: The art of simultaneously pursuing both a financial and a social return on investment (the "double bottom line"). Social entrepreneur: An individual who uses earned income strategies to pursue social objectives, simultaneously seeking both a financial and social return on investment. Said individual may or may not be in the nonprofit sector. UNQUOTE http://www.socialent.org/definitions.htm You also said:

Motivation for change has to come from your heart.

Thank you!

Hello there, David!

QUOTE: The opportunity to do some good to others, providing I am prepared to step out of my comfort zone, fear of failure and feelings of total inadequacy to meet those demands in terms of the effort and abilities required… UNQUOTE

I sometimes think it's a bit like that children's "farm" game where you have to put the little piece of wood shaped like a cow or a pig into the pig- or cow-shaped space in a wooden board. You see a big, gaping gap or hole in the world, a need - and you look around and find a need-shaped solution that will fill it. And then it is just impossible to resist the temptation to bring the solution to where the need is!

Giridhar Rao is right! "Another world is possible".

I still find it amazing and admirable that you find a need in Grenada and the solution that fits it in Scotland - and manage to transport (something close to) whole classrooms from one place to the other!

More power to you.

What is your next need, David?

Hi Charles,
Thank you for picking up my thread.My most pressing need is to be able to fund the shipment of another container load of educational resources to the Grenada Boys Secondary School.
Earlier this week I loaded the first of two container shipments (CRXU410 3197 ) which will leave Grange Dock Scotland on 30/06/2008 for Rotterdam loaded aboard the Johannes Maersk for Manzanillo Panama to beoff loaded on to a feeder vessel for Kingston Jamaica and from there thnks to SeaFreghtLines,Sea Freight Agencies( Miami), bless their generous hearts, will deliver it to St George's Grenada,W.I gratis. Really my need is to rise to the level of becoming a social entrepreneur, who is able to generate an income to sustain his social enterprise without any more having to spend his own limited funds.Any suggestions? Kind regards.

Welcome!

I'm intrigued that you noticed the kinship between this thread and the earlier one on "What Keeps you Up at Night?" I love all kinds of twinnings, pairs, and symmetries…

You mentioned that Prakash means illumination in Sanskrit, and a quick Google revealed that Giridhar means one who lifts mountains - a reference no doubt to Krishna, who did just that to protect his friends from demons - but by one of those curious coincidences that continue to intrigue me, there's also Jesus' saying, " If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." (Matthew 17.20). And that idea has now entered secular society to the point where "moving mountains" is a common term for achieving the well-nigh impossible.

So, as you say, "Another world is possible"

and with a name like yours, I am sure you can move mountains...

Thank you for your contribution, my best wishes for your venture in mother-tongue education - and please convey my greetings to Prakash Ji, I hope he may be able to join us here.

hi Charles, because I'm not tied to any school of thought, I see
"moving mountains" as the power of common belief. Like stories allowing us to push our minds beyond their boundaries, belief has the power to move us. What jump-started the motivation for me, was an epiphany, that we are all fields in the force. Just like the Mayan cultures predicting the coming of the "Homo Luminous" a new evolution of joy and regeneration like a new wave of magnetic rays from the sun for the greater global good, when we tap into it, it's all around us.

Hello Charles! These are what I believe to be my most powerful motivators:

(1) my environment

I live in Manila, where poverty and inequality prevail, and where many systems are disfunctional to the point of being oppressive to one or more sectors of society. I see this everyday -- so it's almost painful for me not to do anything about it. (2) successes I've witnessed -- Experiences like watching one of our beneficiaries, a disadvantaged young man who had everything going against him since birth, finally make that switch to stand up on his own two feet, or seeing individuals (like you) or organizations create significant changes in our world, these are enough to motivate me to believe that "yes, it can be done." (3) purity of intentions -- Sometimes, when I feel I'm at a loss with what I'm doing, I internalize the problem and recognize the intention behind it, and the purity of it. Doing this pushes me to just forge on and trust that this purity will somehow get me the through the dark patch -- and it usually does! (4) the challenge -- It seems like my project here in Manila is almost taking on unchartered territories. We're a model that essentially hasn't been tried and tested here. I think Social Entrepreneurship always poses questions never asked, and this is a strong motivator for me as someone who thrives on challenges! (5) sense of fulfillment -- Many people ask why I do what I do, and unlike what they think, the reason is really more selfish than selfless. I just feel fulfilled doing this, and I can't imagine myself doing anything else.

Thanks for the opportunity to share!

My mom died when I was ten it was a sad and lonley time - maybe that’s my motivation to help others but I am not certain?

Years ago I was speaking with a friend about how frustrated I was with the racial situation in the US. We were sitting in a cafe in Atlanta Georgia and I was really sharing or shouting my frustration and she asked me a question "so what are you going to do about it or what are you doing to change it". It took me several years and a trip to Indonesia (another long enlighten story) to say okay now I am going to do something. And for almost ten years I have been really doing something!

When I read the question ....."carry you through rough times" For me rough times is relevant depending on one's experience or measure of "rough times" we spent years in Luanda Angola where water, electricity and the Marburg virus were our "rough times". For us foreigners we had the necessities to sustain us but to the local people these were everyday struggles. My measure of rough is a bit different than before we began to live in developing countries and perhaps that’s what motivates me to carry on?

I think motivation for social enterpreneurship springs mainly form being a little selfless . As Meher Baba, the famous Indian spiritual master(www.avatarmeherbaba.org) would put it, the root cause of all worldy problems is selfishness -be at individual,family, group,clan,or any other conceivable social hierarchial level . I do understand and ponder over the difficulty in having a satisfactory definition of selflessness but we all understand the semantics. But analysed in the framework of metaphysical world, the questions or points raised by Dr Prakash ,I think,will get unequivocally get answered in the wonderful discourses by Meher Baba(http://discoursesbymeherbaba.org/.It is like a fresh wave of understanding and appreciation to the vexed problems that confront most human beings at some stage or the other of their life.

I HATE A DIRTY ENVIRONMENT.(Let the Caps lock show my degree of detest). I have a privilegde of living in a rather dirty city, and that is compelling me to find solutions. I am a Nigerian and I live in a city called Ibadan. The waste problem in our city is peculiar due to our peoples' attitude to waste disposal and the growing inability of the government to handle the problem alone. I am in the process of forming a social entreprenuail company, De-Clean Intiative, that will collect these waste, convert them to bioenergy and organic fertilizer, recycle plastics and other waste stream components.

In 3 years, I promise Ibadan will be clean.That is my sole motivation

This excercise of knowing and learning from individuals from acroos the globe is so exciting, thanks to Charles,Victor & Socialedge.

It was a deffinetly long journey I had > a 25 years of close observation of life - from death of my sister in 1983 to demolition of my clinic on June 24th 2008.

Questions continue........

What happened in the journey was I learned to live from the questionable situations.

One thing deffinetly happened I earned friends who taught me to survive and continue to serve.

The best thing I should say what social thought and action would do is > help you to analyze the situation by being away from it.

As long as you are in situations you wont get answers so detach and act.

If at all you get this question - does surya will not react to situations when they happen unexpectedly, yes I do, but if I dont behave the way I want it to be in normal situations then I am pushed into guilt trip and I ask for more energy to grow and learn.

If we carry guilt of you not doing anything wrong then it is so painful.

Deffinetly this excercise will help of knowing your views so do encourage others to post their views.

So this "WORK IS WORSHIP" indeed.

The date of demolition of my clinic was - 4th June 2008.

It is quite a difficult question for me when I am asked to write about the most powerful stimulator of my life. Over a period of last two decades,I have ventured into quite different disciplines beginning from Indian spiritual history, political theory, global economy, Mahabharata, Indian politics, World cinema, contemporary HIndi and Punjabi Literature and ecological activism.Apart from my intellectual interests, I have been quite active in administrative reforms within my campus,career counselling and student movements. Naturally, this kind of background can give me sufficient reasons to list some powerful motivators of my life but whatever I try has turned out to be quite amorphous once I attempt to phrase it. Perhaps, it was the change of contextual coordinates of space and time that really determined my course of action but it has been a very mysterious exercise to pin down the science of motivating desire as to when it arises, how it arises and what makes it getting transformed into an active and creative pursuit. I generally try to ask myself if I am to die in the very next moment, would I be really bothered about the quantum of task that remains unfinished or unfulfilled? This exercise reveals a lot of internatl paradoxes and inconsistencies in my life-pattern.Death is like a wayward traveller that can venture into our life anytime, anywhere. So, the question is if my desire can sustain its power in each coming moment despite the context of death being operational at every momen? Generally, what happens is that the idea of death and its power can distort many desires and almost vanquish the paraphernalia of those desires. This can be the time of great personal tragedies, critical occasions or social disaster and so on but my experience tells that death does vanquish many but not all desires. There is no method of determining that in any scientific terms but still, every person does perform somewhat more or less beautifully in such a situation though not at the first occasion. And this process continues its improvement till end. This realm of desire that remains untouched by the fear of death is the fundamental construction that everybody wishes to be part of. Of course, it may be multi-faceted but the structure shall vary from person to person. This is something that not only explains the intrinsic exclusivity of all souls as well as the essential plurality of human existence. A desire can look a very selfish concern at the first glance but all desires have an in-built design for the other's role. I don't essentialize this design as the non-violent only; it may not be like that. A soldier may not be enjoying that luxury but the other is as much circumscribed by the context of death as the self is. So, the relationship may also be following innumerable possibilities but the mediating factor shall be the desire that remains unperturbed by the idea of death.

A powerful motivator for me is my external environment.

I am a businessman and I live in Manila,Philippines where poverty is prevalent. One evening I was having a nice meal in a fashionalbe restaurant in Quezon City (which is the capital of the Philippines). My table was beside a glass window where I could have a good view of the garden outside the restaurant. Then there was this sudden commotion of children running and gathering around a tree just outside my window, barely 5 meters from where I was sitting and enjoying my meal. I saw this small child about 8 years old hanging on a rope in the tree. This 8 year old boy has committed suicide. He has apparently been abandoned by his parents and left to roam the streets without a home, begging for food, sniffing solvents to forget his hunger...and now, he just could not bear his miserable situation and simply hanged himself in this tree just barely 5 meters from where I was sitting and enjoying my meal. And there are thousands of such children roaming the streets of Manila.

That incident 3 years ago altered my lifestyle and my business style completely.

I live very simply now. By my conscious choice I gave up all luxuries and extravagance that goes with having money and success. I feel very guilty to have these luxuries when all around me is so much poverty and misery.

I employ my money and capital assets to establish learning workshops in small villages to provide for the material needs of the village people as well as give them education. Then they don't have to leave their villages to seek employment in the big city where they will end up in misery.

Knowledge has been a major motivator for me. I opened pandora's box one day and asked why? With that question came knowledge and with that knowledge came responsibility. As I have acted on that responsibility, I have gained experience. With that experience came additional responsibility and expectation. As I attempt to recede back into my selfish world of limited responsibility, I find myself unsettled. If only others would step up and do what obviously needs to be done, I would be free to indulge in a state of ignorance, however brief it may be. Yes, there is a tremendous sense of accomplishment and feeling of self worth, yet with so many starfish washed ashore ready to die if not for a savior, the task at hand can seem daunting.

Anthony Peterman, Founder "RISE-UP"

An old man was walking along the the ocean shoreline one morning after a very high tide. As he walked along, he saw hundreds of starfish that had been washed ashore and he realized that they would die if they were not returned to the sea. But there were so many, there was no way to save them. Suddenly he saw a young boy bending over, picking something up and throwing it into the water. He approached the young boy and realized that the boy was methodically bending down, picking up a starfish and throwing it into the ocean and repeating this same process again and again. The old man stopped the boy and asked him why he was bothering? What difference would it make? There were too many starfish. The boy looked at the old man, bent down and picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean. As he did so he said, "It makes a difference to that one."

I thought I'd try to summarize and group the responses thus far.

*

Change springs from passion. I think that's what Mari-Lyn Hudson is getting at when she writes: Motivation for change has to come from your heart.

In some cases, that passion springs from the simple insight that A Giridhar Rao expresses so well: Another world is possible

That other world is possible because we care: David Miles Hanschell: The opportunity to do some good to others

NL Cutean: showing how much we care is important. It is a good business decision, too.

Jo Davidson emphasizes that the change can spring from a sudden, positive insight: What jump-started the motivation for me, was an epiphany, that we are all fields in the force.

Daniel Bassill, on the other hand, indicates the significance of slow and steady growth in commitment: Motivation grows with time and experience.

SN Prasad in a lovely post emphasizes the unselfish part of ourselves: I think motivation for social enterpreneurship springs mainly from being a little selfless .

Daniel Bassill balances that with concern for self and surroundings: However, there is also another motivator. I need to eat and take care of my family.

Anthony Peterman points out that we won't change what we don't notice or have no response to: Knowledge has been a major motivator for me.

Sometimes it is the sheer ugliness of a situation that triggers our resolve. Krie Reyes Lopez expressed it well: many systems are disfunctional to the point of being oppressive to one or more sectors of society. I see this everyday - so it's almost painful for me not to do anything about it.

Balogun Oluwasegun says something similar: I hate a dirty environment. ... In 3 years, I promise Ibadan will be clean.That is my sole motivation.

Francis Osorio's response to seeing an 8-year old suicide is pardigmatic: I saw this small child about 8 years old hanging on a rope in the tree. … That incident 3 years ago altered my lifestyle and my business style completely.

It can be family or other tragedy that triggers compassion. Rhonda Staudt: My mom died when I was ten it was a sad and lonley time - maybe that’s my motivation to help others but I am not certain?

Surya Prakash: I learned to live from the questionable situations.

Perhaps Sunil Aggarwal is seeing this sort of motivation from a slightly different perspective: A Desire that remains unperturbed by the idea of Death

*

So both moments of intense light (Jo's epiphany) and loss (Rhonda's mom's death), as well as the direct confrontation with unacceptable situations (Krie's pain, Francis' child-suicide) can play their part - motivation can be sudden (Jo) but grows slowly with care and effort (Dan) - and our motivation comes from the heart (MaryLyn), is fundamentally unselfish (SN Prasad) and yet with an appropriate level of self-care (Daniel).

Surya, I am particularly pleased to see you posting here, as this event was in fact a response to your suggestion. Would you like to spell out the story of your clinic and its ending in a bit more detail?

This is a wonderful sharing conversation so far - let's keep going.

Yes,

Need to spell out this event.

For those who dont know my story and recap for others who know me.

My journey of social thought began with death of my sister in 1983 - I was 18 and only ? which bothered me was if death is certain then what is Life then > is it suffering?

Then on I had 6 years learning and reflecting situations by being a volunteer in a service organisation,2 years as a medical practitioner and 2 years as a postgraduate student in health adminstration, while being a student I got married to Dr.S.V.Kameswari an enthusiastic doctor from rural andhra pradesh.

She was keen to be become a gynecologist and serve women and so the understanding between US was that I earn till she completes her education.

On June 1st 1999 I resigned and converted a car parking area into a clinic and established the organisation Life-Health Reinforcement Group.This was done because of two reasons
1) Ours is a orthodox family where daughter -in-law is supposed to manage the Kitchen and her family irrespective of her qualifications and as a beloved wife and competent doctor she accepted.
2)I had no enough money to have my permanent place and we wanted tocut down on overheads.
Systematically the clinic grew and her Out Patient clinic is named as"MATHRU DEVO BHAVA" (Mother is equal to GOD).True to its name whoever came for the infertility follow-up they were blessed with children >we recorded a 93% success and the OP grew to morethan 60 families visiting us per day.

As the days passed by we lost our , brother, father in quick succession in 2006 and my lost her father on April 4th and her uncle on May 11th 2008.

We recieved a letter from Municipality on May 31st evening around 5pm (dated may 30th) that the clinic is running in Unauthorised area and it will be demolished.

We went to seek clarification from the authority and the answer was the letter was issued basing on a complaint and when they showed who had given the complaint then to our utter disbelief it was signed by those people who had sought our medical help and we resigned ourselves to follow it much further.......

We asked for extension of time for 15days so that we can inform our patients who come as far as 200-250kms.

We came to know they agreed but it was otherwise - on 4th June early morning at around 10-11 AM, an SI walked into our clinic and asked who is Surya Prakash and he had noted down my profile and two vehicles of police personnel came along with muncipal vehicles with nearly 50men entered the clinic started taking out our medical equipment and other furniture and placed out of the complex, this while Dr.Kameswari was examining the patients.

I moved out of the premises stayed outside while my wife couldnot accept this and tears just roled -friends it was worst than death and she refused to accept and I felt helpless and I just removed my shirt and banian, stood halfnaked as protest......

It was 9 years of nearly 20hrs of continous contribution to the community resulted in this fashion.

In 13years ofour married life my wife never questioned my decisions and this time she cried for nearly a day, while we were advised to shift our clinic to OPEN HOUSE(another activity of ours where hunger is met unconditionally).

On June 5th we did shift the clinic to OPEN HOUSE and we are continuing with our services but evenings have become silent as we dont have place to treat and serve and we continue our life.....

Lots of questions friends and lots of suggestions and questions, that you should have done this, done that, you should have taken video of the event...

ONE WORD > I CONTINUE TO SERVE AND I DONT HAVE ANSWERS BUT TO WORK AND I BELIEVE >WORK IS WORSHIP.

Thanks for summing up the comments Charles. I think it's easy to understand why people get motivated to do something. There is suffering and inequety and injustice all over the world. Plenty of motivaters.

However, none of these problems will be solved in a short burst of involvement. These are problems that take years to solve, and many social innovators work alone for many years, before they are ever noticed (if ever).

Thus, I encourage you to expand the thread to "what keeps you motivated?" And, "What will keep motivated, and focused on the same social issue, five, ten and 15 years from now?"

This is a challenge I address with blogs written from June 7 to 11, starting with http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2008/06/maximizing-value-from-civic-engagement.html

Unless we can get a growing number of people involved, and keep them involved and growing in what they know and what they will do, it's not likely that the problems we are motivated to solve will be reduced in any great way.

Dan Bassill

• What really jump-starts your motivation?
  • Are there situations around you that just cry aloud for help?

Needless imbalance and inequality that can be on every step here. Death because it urges me to take a full breath and delve into the truth about myself and disregard common held world view which can often be just a clever delusion. People giving their best and deeply sharing with the world, like people making and improving linux whih I am using just now to type this words. People living their life deeply and using every moment of it.

• What evil troubles you, and what good can come of it?

Unemployment and poverty and personal degradation rising from it.

• What brings a sense of urgency that can carry you through the rough times? Difference between the world I live in and the world it could be. It can be better and one day it will be better. If we build the better part of it.

The same. Unemployment. I wonder how many people round the world are suffering from it. I think majority of the world. To solve it we need to change our perception of what job and employment really is. I think that can be defined as good in this case. * Does the death of a loved one bring home to you the fragility of our existence? Yes. Yesterday I was giving my last respect to a youg friend, artist, who died at age of 35 in his best and most creative age. I feel like his destiny speaks to me: be what you can be and don't hesitate even a second.

Sorry, I don't know why the text is formated like this. I didn't want to shout.