03/15/15 5:18 PM
I found the comparison of different types of entrepreneurship very interesting. The main difference between the two is a socioeconomic one.
Bernstein says that what we think of as normal entrepreneurs are the entrepreneurs who's goals are to make a large profit and make a product or service that will last and be respected. The social entrepreneurs on the other hand are trying to maximize the social impact by addressing and hopefully correcting an issue that was overlooked by other institutions of the "normal" entrepreneurs.
Despite these differences, both types of entrepreneurs usually have the same skill set and experience levels as each other. This was really interesting to me because I had the false assumption that the people who lacked the skills or experience (or at least didn't have as much of) would be the entrepreneurs that did not make money and the ones that would devote themselves to helping others. Bernstein proved me completely wrong.
Bernstein gives us an example of two pioneering entrepreneurs: Muhammad Yunus and Fazle Abed. They decided to form their own form of disaster relief aid and were extremely successful at it because of a number of things.
1. They looked on failures as opportunities for improving.
2. They hired locals to help them grow.
3. They had a rigorous application process.
This should be a model for us because it seems to be very effective. We should look at our failures or shortcomings as things that we can improve upon, as I believe that can make us better entrepreneurs.
More to come next week!
C4E Associate
Noah Mark
From my understanding, social entrepreneurs often make money. They may not make buckets of money, but they can certainly make money by finding ways to provide a service that fulfills a societal need. Many social entrepreneurs are small scale, so the profits are small. But this doesn't preclude larger-scale social entrepreneurship, it seems to me. As our government struggles more and more to cure social ills, I suspect that there will be more and more openings for social entrepreneurs to do important (and perhaps lucrative) work.
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