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Mar 17 2012
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Forum, Reflection, Social Entrepreneurship, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #7 – The Nature of Ambition: How Serious Should We Take Ourselves?

Weekly Ponder #7

The Nature of Ambition: How Serious Should We Take Ourselves?

Last week, we concluded some thoughts on the nature of ego and the way it affects different individuals’ approach to social entrepreneurship. While we tend to speak of ego usually negatively, I pointed out that at best, it serves as a basic motivating force for us to spring to action – even if some may not like the inherent “selfish” motivation.

Today, my thoughts have been circling around this idea of motivation and its big brother – ambition. Specifically, I have been wondering about how we can reconcile the notion of ambition, which deals by definition with the future, with the notion of being at peace and content with the present. Think about all the Buddhist teachings that encourage us to reject attachment, desire and expectations, in order to diminish or avoid suffering.

I suspect that there is a good number of people in the do-good and social entrepreneurship space today that would identify with Buddhist teachings (or perhaps, not?). If so, would it be ignorant of me to think that if you are a social entrepreneur or consider yourself active in this “social” sector, you probably have a considerable amount of ambition?

And if that is the case, do you have some advice for the Good Generation on how to balance forward-looking “ambition” with present-focused Buddhism? Can you have both? Answering this question may be a non-trivial component of the quest for happiness for many folks out there in the field, fighting the good battle.

What’s further at stake seems to be this: at a time when we keep saying that we need more and more people to engage, to strive, to change the world, we are implicitly saying that we need more people to follow the call of their ambition to make their dreams a reality. Where, then, does this leave us?

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Mar 11 2012
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Career, Polls, Social Enterprise

Weekly Poll #5 – Mulla, Mulla, Mulla: What’s the $ Reality of Social Enterprises?

Weekly Poll #5:

Mulla, Mulla, Mulla: What’s the $ Reality of Social Enterprises?

In a previous Weekly Ponder that dealt with how much “impact” we expect doing good to have on our wallet, the poll results suggested the majority of people do actually care about “doing good and doing well” when it comes to working for social enterprises or NGOs in terms of expecting to make a good living, too. Not only did they care, but they also seemed to agree that the level of pay seems relatively low and unattractive at present.

I’ve since then had a chance for a few good conversations with fellow Good Generation members here and there over a cup of coffee or dinner on the subject of compensation. We agreed that while NGO studies have been around for a while, there exists too little transparency and research in the relatively recent field of for-profit social enterprises on what salary levels currently are and whether this has been adequate to attract and retain talent lured by the call to “do good and do well”. More enigmatic even to me is what the expected progression should be for someone within 2, 5 or even 10 years of working for a social enterprise. The assumption of some people remains that a social enterprise should pay better than the traditional NGO because it’s more like a “business”. Interesting! But is it true?

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Feb 27 2012
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Career, Forum, NGOs, Social Enterprise, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #6 – Money Talks: Should Doing Good have more Impact on Your Wallets?

Weekly Ponder #6

Money Talks: Should Doing Good have more Impact on Your Wallets?

Raise your hands if you have heard the following phrase: “Doing Good While Doing Well.” Now raise your hands if you did not know that this refers to companies and investors. Yes, the money goes to them. Not to you. That is, not to most of you, who are likely neither a company nor have the money to play impact investor. If you care about such things as “doing well” (ah heck, let’s call it what it is: money), my ponder of the week may resonate.

Personally, and frankly, I cannot imagine why we would care about how much “good profits” those responsible/sustainable corporations make or why we would care that the (already wealthy) impact investors get a little extra cash in the bank, without first talking about making “good living” ourselves. Perhaps that explains my aversion to a phrase which smells like good PR but lacks personal significance that I can relate to by any measure.

A further thought. To review a perennial bone that I love to unearth occasionally (see previous post where I mentioned the issue of compensation), I continually try to tell myself that the following is not true: that the vast majority of “do-good” jobs that DIRECTLY affect the (social/environmental) bottom line, e.g., working for social enterprises and NGOs, do not seem to pay so well. We’re not even comparing to traditional for-profit jobs here. We just have to compare that to those do-good jobs that exist more to ENABLE other change-makers, e.g., foundations, institutions like World Bank, ADB, and consultancies. If you didn’t know, allow me to suggest this carefully: the latter make (a lot) more money than the former! Today’s question is not why there is a difference and whether that is appropriate or fair, or exactly what levels of positions we are talking about here (although both may be addressed by a future post). Today’s question may be simply about why do-good pay is (relatively) low and unattractive period – and whether this is okay.

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Feb 25 2012
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Polls, Social Entrepreneurship

Weekly Poll #4 – Ego Management: Goodness for the Sake of Whom?

Weekly Poll #4:

Ego Management: Goodness for the Sake of Whom?

It appears as if the post reflecting on the nature of ego in social entrepreneurship got more than a few people thinking this week. Before we finish that series later with Part 2, I was curious to see if we had people honest enough to participate in a very simple survey – to find out how much of our do-good activity is truly for the poor, the disadvantage, or the helpless planet vs. for what one commenter called “#1″, “Numero Uno” (ourselves).

As discussed in the article, it seems that when people get involved in this whole ego conversation it tends to result from the fact that there are two schools of thought around this whole “ego in social impact” business. In the first camp, people care only about the results, the accomplishments themselves. In the second camp, people care not just about the results but also about why someone is doing something. In this specific instance, some of us can get very annoyed or upset when we realize that a do-gooder like a social entrepreneur has a proven strong motivation for attaining fame, recognition and a sense of “achievement” instead of bearing the “good of others” as her first reason. Others, on the other hand, could not care less what kind of person does the work, as long as the mouths are fed, the homeless sheltered, and the homes rebuilt.

No matter in which camp you fall, this week’s poll is about finding out if anyone would ever admit to being more driven for an inner sense of accomplishment and pride in oneself instead of the purely charitable motive. While some people would be aghast to assume anyone would ever NOT do it for the noble purpose, others roll their eyes about those so “naive” to believe that we could really do something just for the benefit of others. Sorry, if the answers do not leave much wiggle room this time (smirk)!

Results are immediately visible as you click!

As always, please do feel free to share any suggestions for future polls you may find interesting to learn more about your fellow Good Generation comrades and their views on various topics. I’d be happy to pick up on some of these ideas in the future.

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Feb 17 2012
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Forum, Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #5 – Entrepreneurship vs. Replicaneurship: Why is Reinventing the Wheel so Popular among Changemakers?

Weekly Ponder #5

Entrepreneurship vs. Replicaneurship: Why is Reinventing the Wheel so Popular among Changemakers?

Here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately: why do so many social enterprises and NGOs start from scratch instead of replicating a previous model? By extension, does ego and the drive to be unique have anything significant to do with it? Or is it just operational challenges, resistant stakeholders (like governments) and the nature of funding that prevents most social enterprises from going “McDonalds” with their model? More profoundly, in a world where we keep touting the virtues of collaboration and doing things “together” why does it seem that the predominant social change model presupposes individual organizations growing “big and strong” rather than spreading their idea and business model seeds out “far and wide”? So instead of McDonalds, why is it less common to have more blatant “me too” brands like Burger King’s, Wendy’s, Jack in the Box, Quicks and Lotterias in the world of social enterprises, if the world is crying out for more (good) burgers?

I don’t know if this term has been coined somewhere else, so pardon me for not citing credit, but perhaps we want to consider the possibility of “replicaneurship” as another viable career option to us, rather than classical “entrepreneurship”. Immediately I am thinking of the role of competition vs. cooperation and that its premises seem to potentially conflict with the basic dual purposes of social enterprises to be somewhat self sustaining (like turning a profit) while pursuing social mission that should reach as far as possible. Well, what do you do when two social enterprises work next door to each other with very similar goals? Do they shake hands and live happily together? Do they get married (merge)? Or do they fight it out with a smile for the same world of donors and investors and let the “fitter” survive? Or do they fight and don’t smile?

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Feb 07 2012
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Announcements, Forum, Good Profiles

Announcement – Introducing the Good Profile

Dear Good Generation,

After a bit of preparation, I am excited to finally bring you the “Good Profile” series, which features the voices of fellow members of our do-gooder community. They may be a few years out active in the field as entrepreneurs, employees, consultants, and more, or they may also be students just at the beginning of their “do-good” careers.

What they have in common with you is that they too thought hard about what they wanted to contribute, and went through their own reflections, experiences or rationalizations for why they do what they do now. For some, the answers were obvious as to what their path should be. For others, they may still not be sure if what they do best fits what they wish to accomplish in terms of impact and change in the world. But they are taking a chance, nonetheless.

They all come from different backgrounds that some of you will hopefully identify with as not being too different from your own. They all had alternatives and choices for career paths but for some reason chose to get into the “do-good” business. They all, not unlike you, are talented, bright and with a unique set of values that they wish to align their world to.

Lastly, one important note. If you know of people, including yourself, whom you think would make for a great Good Profile, please tell me or click the “Good Profile Sign-up Sheet“ on the bottom menu of the blog. Tell me a little about yourself or the person you have in mind. If it’s you, leave me a contact e-mail. If it’s someone else you are referring, I will ask you for an introduction if their story seems interesting. I am periodically looking for representativeness across do-good sectors or occupations, among professionals (mid-career or entry-level) or students (undergraduate or graduate all okay). Whether you are someone in the field or just looking for the way and have a unique perspective or struggle that you can articulate, I would love to hear about it.

This is also a great opportunity for you to raise awareness about your organization although the emphasis is clearly on you.

For now, hope some of you find the profiles helpful to your own reflections.

Sincerely,

Thien

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Feb 05 2012
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Forum, Sustainability, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #4 – Reaching Peak Stuff: Is Growth Overrated?

Weekly Ponder #4

Reaching Peak Stuff: Is Growth Overrated?


In a previous post, I questioned the real meaning behind careers in CSR and sustainability by asking if they were indeed jobs where people actively promote or “do good”, or whether they were not just jobs where people could pride themselves for “doing less bad.” Lately, especially after reading an interesting article on Fast Magazine’s co.exist blog about whether we might have reached “peak stuff” (analogy to the fear of reaching “peak oil” or point of declining supplies), I’ve been starting to question more some of the fundamental assumptions that today’s world economy is based on. One in particular stood out, and it applies particularly to developed countries.

I am talking about the assumption that our economy’s health depends on companies producing goods and that they keep doing that until the end of time. It’s called “growth” for economics laymen. Question is, what happens if all companies keep growing?

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Jan 29 2012
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Forum, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #3 – Ultimate Do-Good Goals: How Does Nirvana Look to You?

Weekly Ponder #3

Ultimate Do-Good Goals: How Does Nirvana Look to You?


Perhaps I am mistaken, but before this whole doing good business became an actual career option, it seems that used to be easier to define what we meant by the actual word “career,” “success” and how we envisioned our goals in that regard. One could think about the idea of moving up the corporate ladder and become an executive, or ideally, the big boss herself. One could think about the goal of making a boat-load of money, then doing whatever one felt like. For this latter piece, one could easily predict once monetary progress from position to position up the ladder. One could also think about the dream of producing an iconic product that would be used everywhere in the world, and to receive credit for this.

But what now, if you are part of the Good Generation of people talking all day and night about doing cool things for people and planet? Damn you and your ideals and gibberish about purpose! Is it that easy for you to articulate what your goal is? What is it you want in the end?

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Jan 21 2012
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Forum, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #2 – In Search for a Cause: Do you need one or can you be a “generalist”?

Weekly Ponder #2

In Search for a Cause: Do you need one or can you remain “generally” passionate?

Whenever we see profiles of today’s changemakers, we tend to see two flavors: (1) those that champion one specific cause and (2) those that prefer the “general idea” of doing good, which can lead them to serve several causes or “issue areas”, e.g., healthcare, education, poverty, etc. Thus, as more and more young people find inspiration and motivation from their peers and idols around the world to dedicate themselves to a career of doing good, many ask themselves what their personal story will be.

It is actually very easy to follow the story of people being magnetically drawn to a particular issue, say, AIDS or illiteracy, as a matter of personal background or unique experiences. We read about it every day. Joe goes on vacation in Africa, sees some poor people, is moved, ends up staying 5 years living with the locals, eventually returns home, tells a story, raises money, starts some company, does good, gets contacted by NY Times, does interview – BAM, fame, fun, the rest is history. But what about the others? What about the rest of us without an apparent cause?

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Jan 18 2012
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Announcements, Forum, Polls

Announcement – Introducing the Weekly Poll

Dear Good Generation,

In addition to the “Weekly Ponder” series, I’d like to add yet another item: the “Weekly Poll”. Not only do I like to change things up as you know from plain vanilla articles and questions, but I also am highly interested in collecting on the community’s behalf some more information, which I then can share and mention in subsequent posts.

My opinion about the best way to fight our notorious lack of data in the area of do-good careers is to start somewhere, keep it simple and hopefully find some surprises and interesting nuggets along the way. I’m serious, don’t show this to the folks at Gallup, they would probably turn in their graves by the lack of finesse and design in my poll – oh well.

Oh, and yes, I deliberately inserted my poll in the middle of a (apparently popular) post series. The cost of the next few articles has just gone up by a few clicks! That’s right, I’ll offer an incentive for participating in the mini-poll: once I get a minimum number for participation, I’ll post the next part of the series. Consider this a retaliation for all of you who ignored my benign (and arguably poorly marketed) request for some participation in the last Weekly Ponder!

More on this in the actual Weekly Poll, though. For now, thanks for joining in and as always, please do send me your suggestions for interesting poll topics and questions as it relates to our blog community, so I can consider them for the future.

Sincerely,

Thien

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