Path to Social Entrepreneurship

I have always been fascinated and attracted towards the word "Entrepreneur". This was just who I wanted to be, during my childhood I used to think that being an entrepreneur means simply a "Businessman". And as the time passed and maturity kicked in my brain, I started realising that an Entrepreneur doesn't only mean a businessman, being an entrepreneur means much more than just a businessman. I was in the second year of my graduation when I decided firmly to be an entrepreneur and had discussed the same with my family. My mom and dad were not convinced at the beginning, so I stopped trying convincing my parents and started working on my ideas because I knew that I could convince them and ultimately I did at some point of time and they were very supportive. When I embarked on this journey of social entrepreneurship, I didn't know much about the ecosystem of social challenges. I simply started off going out and talking to people about their daily life problems which could potentially lead me to think in various perspectives towards the problems. I attended many seminars and entrepreneurship events just to see and experience what people exactly do and how do they see the opportunities lying ahead. Personally, it taught me a lot. When you start observing people and their surroundings, you start learning about different human behaviour which helps you in developing your solutions around it.
Now coming back to my journey, it was in the final year of my graduation that I became damn serious about becoming a social entrepreneur because I not only wanted to make money but also wanted to create an impact on millions of lives. So I opted out of my placements and started thinking and working on one idea that was all mine. Then in the final semester of my engineering, I got an opportunity of working in an innovation hub. I was very confused, as I had two different options in front of me, at one side I had my own idea and I was also getting the support I needed but didn't have the right team to work on it and on the other side I had an opportunity where there was a passionate team working for a good cause on a different challenge. I held a lot of discussions with my parents, friends and professors and finally, I decided that I will take a chance and would go for the second option where I would learn about team dynamics, startup culture and many things. Today I am glad that I chose the second option because this is exactly what I wanted to do. This decision of my life was one of the best decisions.

My experience in the last one year as an innovator, an entrepreneur has been amazing. I have learnt that social entrepreneurship is much more difficult and has many challenges. It is not very easy to convert a social challenge into a sustainable business, but that is where the role of an entrepreneur comes into the picture to achieve the social impact while being profitable. This takes a lot of patience, courage and understanding. There are few people who choose to become an entrepreneur and then there are few of the few who choose to become a social entrepreneur.
Yes, today I am a social entrepreneur.