At this year's Social Business Youth Summit in Manila, I gave a talk to social entrepreneurs, investors, lawmakers, community leaders, social advocates and others in related roles… from many parts of the world. As the only Vietnamese speaker, I took the liberty of “representing” Vietnam in my presentation. The conference audience supported me, applauded many times and gained a new perspective on our country, beyond the “bad habits” for which we are known internationally, such as petty theft, leaving food uneaten at buffets and pushing ahead without queuing… Of course, I am human and have many shortcomings. But whenever my mission calls, I will always embrace it and act.
“Social entrepreneurship” is no longer a movement; it is something that needs to happen as a source of hope for today's world. These are people who reconcile two extremes — one could jokingly say they follow the “middle way.” A successful Social Entrepreneur must care about both 2 factors: Social AND Money. Not OR, but AND. They find solutions that reconcile seemingly contradictory issues, creating social change even if it initially seems “unreasonable.” To me, the best book about Social Entrepreneurs is “The Power of Unreasonable People.”
Can Business and Charity go together? Separate them; each has its place. Joining them creates problems. Yet the Social Entrepreneur's path does not lean to either extreme, but transcends that binary thinking.
If one focuses exclusively and excessively on Charity, the following ‘ailments’ arise:
-Living solely on sponsorship, without creating sustainable operations when the budget is cut.
-Charity that “spoils” society. For example, when I went to Hà Giang, many people practiced charity by buying snacks to give ethnic minority children, then leaving with casual smiles and hearts full of pride at being good and kind. Yet that very behavior makes local children skip class and drop out, because every day they… flood the streets to ask tourists for snacks and money. Not going to school = no knowledge = no future.
-Feeling more virtuous than others and gathering with a group who believe they behave more virtuously than other people. When you look at those you help with pity, you place yourself above them. Change your perspective from “pity” to “compassion”: believe in their potential, recognize that what they lack is only a little catalyst, such as the right environment, and support them with that. Do not pity them; trust, support, and encourage them.
If one leans excessively toward Business, other ‘ailments’ arise: appearances, saving face, cliques, superficial relationships, and maximizing profit by any means, leading to social destruction (for example, businesses previously did not invest in one thing: the Environment, because it generated no profit, only costs).
But today’s world demands a more harmonious approach: not a trade-off (for example, a manufacturing company investing in environmental equipment must sacrifice profit because costs increase), but a trade-on (a play on trade-off: for example, if that same company acts in an environmentally beneficial way, it will gain support; with a good reputation, it earns more legitimate profit—‘synergistic benefits,’ or a ‘win-win’). Social enterprise is the answer to that problem, creating both social impact and profit while empowering beneficiaries to participate in the process, leading to harmonious development among individuals, businesses, and society.
So businesspeople have much to learn from social workers, and social workers must equip themselves with many business skills too. Combining the two gives us Social Entrepreneurs.
