Three business lessons from social enterprise

I consider myself to be an entrepreneur. My teenage daughter, who is just now discovering the world of fashion, thinking about colleges for the future and understanding a little more about the value of money, told me the other day, “Daddy, why didn’t you go into business? We would have been rich!”

She was complaining, but I took it as a compliment. Sure, the goal of social entrepreneurs might be different – instead of profits, we are looking for society as a whole to benefit – but the basic task is quite similar. The entrepreneur must take a new endeavour from 0 to 60, from conception to sustainability, from a mere vision to concrete reality. Whether in the for-profit or non-profit sectors it takes a special kind of person to do this.

But what can for-profit entrepreneurs learn from those who are trying to change the world through social enterprise? Exactly that! How to change the world.

1. You have to believe

Whenever you start something new there is a host of reasons at the very beginning to stop right there, walk away and never attempt to do anything so foolish again. It is risky, never been done, will never work, won’t be easy, won’t be accepted, will make you enemies, will upset the status quo, will never get approval, will take too much time, money, effort and the list goes on and on.

If you are foolish enough to start anyway, then be prepared because no sooner have you vaulted over the heads of all the nay-sayers than the second round of “I told you so-ers” will begin. Because everything the first group said is of course absolutely true, and the only way that this thing will ever get started is by sheer determination, perseverance, genius, talent and grit.

The bottom line is that success will happen only if you believe. Don’t get me wrong. Belief won’t get the work done, bring you the opportunities, miraculously turn things around or make money fall out of the sky. You have to do all of that yourself. But what belief does is keep you in the game. It is that unshakable conviction that gets you back out there despite the setbacks, failures and disappointments.

So if you are starting something new, listen to all of the advice, as much of it is real and useful. But the #1 question you must ask yourself before you begin is “do I believe?”

2. Do it because you care, not because you get paid

This next lesson is close to the first, because one of the realities of entrepreneurial work is that at first there is very little chance that you will be remunerated for your effort. There is a long and difficult road to travel before your work is “discovered” and “comes out of nowhere” to be an “instant success.”

If you believe in what you are doing, then you know that its value goes far beyond simply putting money in your pocket. Whether it is for-profit or non-profit, anything that will be truly successful needs to be valuable for everyone else as well. The rest of the world has to notice and say, “Ooh, that is something I want!” An entrepreneur should be motivated first by a passion to share that value with the world.

Now of course, there is no way to continue sharing this thing of value with the world without a sustainable way of supporting it. Unless you are Bill and Melinda Gates and already earned your fortune, you have to find a way to make sure everyone gets paid. But this is the important part. Getting paid is not your purpose! It is a necessary part of the business model but not the reason why you are there. This will be even more important later, when decisions will start being made based more on how to keep everyone paid and less on how to share something valuable with the world. If you start by caring, then you will be able to continue caring once you have gained success.

3. Don’t do it alone

Because entrepreneurs do new things there is a tendency for them to be lonely, out-in-front types who are afraid of competitors stealing their ideas or beating them to the punch. But the temptation to keep things secret until it is perfect and successful can also be self-defeating.

The truly great world-changing ideas are not proprietary. Let me say that again. If this is really a world-changer, then it does not belong to you. The problem that you have a solution for is shared by millions, and to be truly successful they need to enter into a partnership with you. Your solution will need to be adapted and flexed, fit into thousands of unique situations and ultimately be owned by them. It has to become their solution, and then you are just there to serve them as they solve their own problems with the help of your idea.

Do you have a world-changing idea? An idea that you truly believe in? Your mission is to believe, share it with the world and let them take it home and make it theirs. Your business model might differ depending on the idea and those who need it, but the mission is the same.

Published in collaboration with LinkedIn.

Author: Jonathan Wilson is Executive Director at CRASH.

Image: A worker arrives at his office in the Canary Wharf business district in London February 26, 2014. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh