My Friends,



Is your career choice a successful one?



Social entrepreneurship, as a concept, has been in existence for a long time, but takers for it have been very few. However, the trend today shows that not only are youngsters taking the unconventional route, but also understanding social entrepreneurship in the true sense. ‘Finding their call’, is what these young entrepreneurs call their ‘social’ ventures. There’s a way to combine the best of the ‘not-for-profit’ philanthropic world with the best of the ‘for-profit’ enterprising world.



Social entrepreneurs combine the passion of a social mission with an image of business-like discipline, innovation and determination and try to come up with business models as good as the commercial sector. A business entrepreneur is someone who sees value in the creation of new markets, whereas the social entrepreneur aims for value in the form of transformational change that will benefit others.



The young generation today is opting for a balanced mix of qualities of a business entrepreneur to derive most benefits from their ventures. The generation today wants to incorporate what they learn from their experience, about leveraging resources to creating sustainable development, in their careers as policymakers, entrepreneurs and philanthropists. Young people provide an untapped resource to bring about a much required change. Their idealism and open-mindedness to new solutions create opportunities to empower communities to develop solutions. Generation Y is the generation of social innovation, experts say.



One of the exciting developments in the social entrepreneurship space is the eagerness of young people to help each other go from the idea stage to program development to forming a full-blown social enterprise.



“I quit my job and moved to India from San Francisco a year ago. Even though at that time I just came to India for a brief visit, I did not go back and don’t plan to. I am working on different models to start up a variety of education programmes for children, but till then, I am working at the Gandhi Ashram in Ahemdabad and learning as much as I can about the social sector in India and about India,” says Samir Patel, 32 year old IT professional, who owned an IT firm in Silicone Valley and has recently moved to India after shutting shop there.



Would you call these youngsters impulsive or just driven?



Well, that is a question even they don’t know the answers to. “I have no idea, whether it was impulsive when I took the decision to be a social entrepreneur; or a drive to do something for someone else apart from my family and me.



I guess it was both, but I just knew I had to do it and why shouldn’t I? I have had a good education and a good life but what about people who can’t even receive half of what I had.



I am here to do.....



Regards



Mr Dixit