At a meeting of aspiring social entrepreneurs, Santosh Ramdoss, a Graduate Fellow at NYU and the winner of their business plan competition, shared his in-the-trenches story of identifying the needs of India’s poor. Thinking he would help them start their own businesses (as witness the enormous micro financing movement), he discovered that they’d rather have steady jobs.
Lessons
– Be prepared to be fooled by randomness and respect its importance
– Dealing with failure requires resilience
– Need humility and the need to learn from, not about
– Be socially entrepreneurial in everything you do.
– It takes way longer than you think
WAKE UP CALL: In what ways are you prepared to take advantage of the unexpected?
RESOURCE: Santhosh@profitsforpeople.org
