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Life is full of choices

posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 04:39 PM

For a long time the world has been seen in black and white. There is no grey area between philanthropy and business, between social motivations and monetary incentives. This is what many of us have come to believe; that there is a choice in life that must be made; between making money and doing social good. These two independent paths surely cannot be united.

About ten years ago I asked my mum, with clichéd visions of sock-and-sandal wearing philanthropists in my mind, whether it was possible to ‘save the world and wear nice shoes’. Her slightly bemused reaction was an affirmation in my mind that I would have to choose between the altruistic path (and lose the shoes), or the hard-hitting business woman path (and lose the world).

When I first found out about social entrepreneurs, I realised that perhaps this choice wasn’t as clear-cut as I had first thought. People are uniting the things that are good at with the things that they care about, the things that they have had to do with the things that they want to do. Social enterprise can give the world a bit of shake-up and blur the boundaries of our pigeon-holes, bringing innovative creativity into both our workplaces and into our lives.

The world is not black and white, but nor is it grey. Social entrepreneurs are bringing the world into colour.

Comments

Belle Salter

Friday, June 29, 2007 02:35 PM

Nice one!