As we go into 2012, what are the lessons you have learnt in 2011?
Well, for Carol Chyau and Maria So, and their team of social entrepreneurs that set up Shokay, a social enterprise that works to alleviate poverty, this are five lessons that they learnt when embarking on their social enterprise road.
1. Be a Sponge and absorb as much as possible.
Despite being new entrepreneurs and the experience they have in social enterprises isn't a lot, they never gave up. Being determined, they set off to find experienced professionals and learnt every single thing from scratch, even if it means getting their hands dirty.
Despite being new entrepreneurs and the experience they have in social enterprises isn't a lot, they never gave up. Being determined, they set off to find experienced professionals and learnt every single thing from scratch, even if it means getting their hands dirty.
2. Be a detective.
While their social enterprises sell products made of yak fibre, they googled and gather all the information that they needed and found out the gap of opportunity.
3. Be an inventor.
To be unique and special, they had to come out with something no one has done before. Thus, they spent five years experimenting with several business models and tried to find the best way to market their products.
4. Have a perspective of an eagle.
While travelling in this tedious road, along the way people may lose their focus and stray away. However, this did not hinder them from their success. Instead of sidetracking, they focused like how an eagle would focus on its prey, and work towards the goal.
5. Be yourself.
No matter how much work and effort is placed into this, the bottom line is that you have to be proud and love what you do.
Well, these are the 5 main lessons that they have learnt, summarised in my own words. Honestly speaking, what the world lack nowadays are people like this. We seem to have lost our ability to risk on doing something and choose to be safe and stay at our own comfort zone. If everyone had the guts of these two fellow entrepreneurs, who knows. The world could already have had tons of social enterprises seeking to help out fellow people in this world who are less fortunate.
What are your thoughts on this?
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Read the full article here : http://sgentrepreneurs.com/social-entrepreneurship-sustainable-development/2012/01/01/social-enterprise-101-five-lessons-from-an-experienced-social-entrepreneur/
Reference: Huang, J. (2012, January 1) Social Enterprise 101: Five lessons from an experienced social entrepreneur. Retrieved from http://sgentrepreneurs.com/social-entrepreneurship-sustainable-development/2012/01/01/social-enterprise-101-five-lessons-from-an-experienced-social-entrepreneur/
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