Social entrepreneurship is like a series of impossible dares that take place in rapids.
You set the dares yourself and the possessed way you go after them leaves quite a number of 'sane?' people scratching their heads in puzzlement.
The questions flood in. "Why are you doing this?" What on earth do you get from this?" My personal 'favourite': "Who told you that you can save the world?"
If you've ever seen images of fast water rapids, you instinctively understand (I could be mistaken, of course), that manic paddling is the only way to survive if you happen to be in the river. Unless, of course, there is no water - which happens a lot - and there are no rocks. There are always rocks. Huge rocks.
Often, you start this expedition with nothing: no paddles, no raft, no safety equipment, no food or drinking water. The only thing you possess is an unshakeable conviction that the journey you have started is just and right, and that it is what you are supposed to be doing even if you don't know where you are going.
Life, like a river, moves. We either move with it, navigating our mini-travels within it, or it moves us. Also, rocks are a part of life. We avoid some, we get hit by others. Some of us are well equipped to evade life's boulders - sometimes. Some of us are constantly buffeted by vicious hailstorms.
Social entrepreneurship is about making it easier for more people to navigate their way through the rugged flow of life. It's about making the world a better and fairer place.
It doesn't matter if the only thing we can do is try. That is a start. It makes a difference. It creates hope. When we try, we learn what we can do and what we cannot do. And we constantly amaze ourselves by what we discover we can do.
That better future? It is attainable. If we all do our little bit. Ask any social entrepreneur.
