A social entrepreneur would have started the business because ;

There is “an opportunity to better something in the world”.

An opportunity to make a life, lifestyle, career with less guilt

It took me a lot of time to really understand the terminology ‘Social entrepreneur’ well. Seven years into this I have met so many people, I think we all would have gone through these experiences.

1. When the enterprise idea first hit you, your mind was filled with a lot of ‘hate’ ‘anger’ for the status quo. You wanted to do this, bring the change, because something sucks now.

2. You felt you have all the powers, skills to set it right.

3. Your family finally concluded, “you are mad”.

4. If you are married, you made extra efforts to keep it going well

5. If you are unmarried, your chances of getting married appeared bleak

6. You might now admit, your first step is the best step ever taken

7. You might also now admit, you should have taken the first step differently (better)

8. You thought you are alone

9. You never knew there is an abundance of support in this ecosystem

10. When help arrived, you didn’t know how to return the favor

11. Midway you got into serious self-introspection. ‘Am I working for impact or just swimming through to sustain?’

12. You want every member of your team to share the same social responsibility

13. You later learned, you need a good mix of socially responsible people and those who are professionals at the task

14. The first press news article mentioning your efforts is a memory for life.

15. Your first press news mention got you more noise than contacts which benefits your work

16. The people you wanted to impact didn’t bother much about you. They didn’t trust you. There were efforts to pull you down. At least once, you introspected “should I really work for these people”

17. You thought some of your fellow successful social entrepreneurs are just faking

18. You are not satisfied even after riding it well for a couple of years, You feel so little done; so many people, so many communities not yet impacted. That keeps you going.

19. At one point, building a strong second line of management becomes the key. It felt like starting up all again.

20. You are busy in a very different way. With ideas, action, people, planet, development organizations, impact. People outside think you are ‘philanthropic or ‘generous’. Deep inside, you know, you do it for the ‘happiness’ in it.

-This post was originally published in our co-founder Krishnan’s LinkedIn page