What I was saying to all those would-be social entrepreneurs is not to let their ego, that intoxicating buzz of doing something good, of creating something that smells like a business and looks like a charity, get in the way of making good decisions for the community. The donor market cannot bear a million more nonprofits. Some, dear readers, will caution me not to discourage new ideas because then the bad ones will be forced to go away. As Tom Durso has:
Sorry, but innovation is part of the human blueprint. So what if 50 nonprofits are already doing what I propose doing? Maybe I’m the one capable of doing it best. And maybe, just maybe, the competition for dollars and talent will result in a stronger sector overall, with the less capable nonprofits folding up their tents or consolidating.
But what I am telling you is that the bad, ineffective, ego-driven nonprofits are not going away. Unfortunately, we are not operating as a sector to put ourselves out of business. So we’ve got to think of ways not to make the problem worse. The thing is, it’s often a lot easier to do your own thing, to start a brand new organization or initiative than to work to change what’s already out there. Changing the status quo takes courage and some very hard work. That’s why we all still admire the phenomenal work of Dr. Martin Luther King, because he was able to change the minds of many people who had it set in their heads that black people shouldn’t receive equal rights. Dr. King didn’t say, “let’s all create our own thing” – he encouraged everyone to work together toward a very difficult goal that required sacrifice and enormous risk. But nobody, nobody will say it wasn’t worth it.
So let’s cut the crap. We all know that we can’t make a brand new America, so we have to figure out ways to make it a better place for all of us. A real social entrepreneur, to my mind, is not necessarily someone who comes up with an innovative idea and gets “a living stipend for an average of three years, allowing them to focus full-time on building their institutions and spreading their ideas.” A social entrepreneur is someone who has courage enough to change or improve upon what already exists. A social entrepreneur doesn’t come up with something new to boost their ego or reputation and add another bullet to their resume. A social entrepreneur is brave enough to challenge themselves with the question, “are you really making change or just making yourself feel good?”
Be sure to listen to yesterday’s live podcast with the summit’s organizer, Tambra Stevenson. We discussed the question: are next generation leaders contributing to Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy? We also talked about urgency and why young people need to lead courageously.
