experiencing life through an always-nuanced worldview.

“He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.“ – Albert Camus

So this quote has been on my WordPress “drafts” for quite a while now, because every time I want to write about this, I lose motivation and decide to not. But every time I come back to this draft and re-read this quote, the more I identify with it – but in opposite ways.

Some days, I’ll be the “he who despairs,” and others, I’ll be the “he who has hope.” And another day, I’ll be neither – somewhere in the middle as I think Camus intended.

It’s funny, because just last night, as I was reading through the numerous articles for my research paper on social entrepreneurship, I came across an article “Social Entrepreneurs and Catalytic Change” by Sandra A. Waddock and James E. Post, in which it discusses who a “catalytic social entrepreneur” is:

“The activities of social entrepreneurs can thus be distinguished from those of other types of public entrepreneurs by 1) the fact that social entrepreneurs are private citizens, not public servants, 2) their focus on raising public awareness of an issue of general public concern, and 3) their hope that increased public attention will result in new solutions eventually emerging…It is this latter aspect that gives rise to the term “catalytic.”

And I guess that is the one problem I have with that description. That is is the hope that may (or may not) result in new solutions.

If there’s anything I’ve discovered in my twenty years, it’s that hope is never enough. Hope can get you through the day, hope can sometimes bring about change, but it never guarantees change. This may be too tied into my own personal beliefs and philosophies, but the way I see it, one can never rely on and hope for others to change. We can try to change people, to change their beliefs and actions, but we can never guarantee it. Again, hope is never enough.

My too-demanding nature often leads to disappointment, because in every way (both on a personal and more global) level, I want that “hope” directed into reality. And so in reading this article, I would conclude that I disagree. If anything, a catalytic social entrepreneur must not hope that public awareness will bring about change: they must guarantee it and be the ones to bring about this change.

Now, is that too much to ask? Am I, too, being too hopeful? Here we go, a classic case of Rosalind-contradicting-herself. I don’t know – you tell me.

More recently than probably the last two years, I’ve become more cynical, more pessimistic once again toward “human nature” or specifically toward politics and existing injustices. I can never reconcile in my mind the fact that injustices will always exist but the fact that they are, as term itself states, unjust. And it’s not enough for me to want to change these injustices (i.e. my desperate – ha – and determined drive to break into social entrepreneurship and somehow succeed) at my present state and time, while instead of learning actual stuff I wished I were learning, I am instead reading other material I find irrelevant. It definitely doesn’t help, either, to be once again reminded of the “politics IS money” perspective which I realized I’ve tried to ignore. It’s one thing to realize this, but it’s another to have to constantly confront it and be okay (or NOT okay, both lead to the same results) with it.

I do know that “little things” count, and that small grassroots movements add up to become huge revolutions. But I’m still waiting for that. And, in a way, I guess I gave up. I lost faith in the “public” grassroots-movement-model and instead am turning to another sector for answers. Am I just too impatient? Do I need to try and stick it through? Am I really just wasting my time?

God, what does it all mean anyway?? What’s the point of it all? I hate my brain sometimes.

Today, I came across an article: The business of doing good: How to start a social enterprise. Over the past year or so, I’ve learned about “social business” (as first introduced to me through Muhammad Yunus’ book, Creating a World Without Poverty), its principles nicely defined on Mike’s blog post. Since then, I’ve browsed the web, searched for articles about social entrepreneurship/social business, and read about different accomplishments by social entrepreneurs. I’ve decided that the terms “social business”, “social entrepreneurship”, and “social enterprise” all pretty much embody the same message – using business to provide a social benefit. The three terms do mean different things, although I think as of now there has not been as much distinction between the three. The “business of doing good” article, I believe, refers to “social enterprise” as also a “social business.” I just came across an article that defines each, which after reading, I believe my goal is a social purpose business (“social business”).

The article that I came across today just so happened to very concisely put together different aspects of a social enterprise, so I figured I’d share (for my own future reference as well) parts of the article.

What exactly is the difference between an entrepreneur and a social entrepreneur?

Social entrepreneurs differ from their traditional counterparts in the way they view the world. If your sole concern is to expand your own bank balance then the sector isn’t for you but if you want to make a difference beyond putting the odd pound in a charity box, setting up a social enterprise could be the perfect way to achieve your aims.

I remember the first time I was introduced to the concept of a “social business.” For the longest time, I knew I wanted to “use business to change the world”, as I used to say. I didn’t know that such a concept was already in place and in practice (this tends to happen quite a lot – humans are way smarter than I give them for..naive me!). I remember being thrilled by this realization.

So how does a social enterprise “provide a social benefit”?

How you decide to invest your profits is another key early stage decision. Some businesses give away their income, while others provide a product or service which directly benefits a social cause and reinvest the profits back in the business for staff and product or service development issues.

What I’ve always dreamed of is the latter part – using business itself as part of the solution, directly benefiting society in some way.

Lastly, the one aspect of starting and running a social business that both daunts and excites me is that not only does a social business provide a social benefit, it must — as all businesses must — be profitable. There are reasons why businesses are successful. And although I sometimes do not like to admit it (and sometimes do not support the most “profitable businesses”, since some businesses/corporations engage in exploitation, etc.), at the end of the day, money a one of the most key factors in a business. But this is why a social business makes perfect sense to me:

Cliff Prior, chief executive of social enterprise funding body UnLtd, believes persistence is key. “It’s tougher for social entrepreneurs because they’ve got to watch a double or even triple bottom line rather than solely cash and profit,” he explains. “They will face some obstacles and lack of understanding from potential investors or business partners so they must have an extra degree of resilience to tackle it.”

So, at the end of the day, the conclusion is the same one I arrived at last year, when I found and realized that starting a social business is my life calling – that not only do I have to be great, I have to be exceptional. Now the question is – do I have what it takes?

Sometimes I feel like I do, and most other times I feel completely inadequate. I always feel as if I have no experience, no knowledge of just what “social benefits” I’d want to target and provide. I see so many problems in the world — even just in the Bay Area or even back home in Orange County — but I don’t seem to know where I’d ever start to tackle the problems. I also feel as if me being in school doesn’t help much either, because although I’m living in a community where hunger and homelessness is a prevalent and serious issue, I don’t feel involved enough in attempting to alleviate the problem. My work with the hunger and homelessness campaign I co-ran last year, along with my experiences volunteering at a youth shelter, and even my participation in planning a hunger & homelessness conference don’t seem enough. I only feel as if I am just on the outskirts of fulling understanding the issue.

I think what I really need to do is get out there and allow myself to experience full immersion into a community, with the real locals, for me to even begin to understand the underlying problems of a greater issue, but I don’t think me being in school will really allow me to do that. Or am I just making excuses for myself? There is a time for “book learning” as they call it, and there is also a time for “real-world application,” and right now I’m only getting a small dab of each. I think I’m going to look into some programs or “travel scholarships” (read: The Fulbright Program) to further enrich my knowledge, so that I actually have a clue about what I’m talking about and then one day (hopefully not too far in the future) start a social business.