Being a Social Entrepreneur

So what is a Social Entrepreneur? I am still deciding on my definition. My first step in becoming one is to find a definition that fits well with me. With a little help from my partner, my father bought me a great book for Christmas, 'How to Be a Social Entrepreneur make money & change the world' by Robert Ashton. In it Ashton describes the aims of a social entrepreneur as being for people, planet and profit. While I do agree with all 3 of these, I am not sure that they will always all be balanced within a project. But then, we are talking about a social entrepreneur as a person, not their projects. Ashton does have a few sentences that bode well with who I want to be. "Qualified by personal experience, they are driven by a desire to right a social injustice or simply to make the world a better place. What they may lack in enterprise skills they make for with doggedness and relentless energy. Give them the skills and you can see world-changing results."

In other words, a social entrepreneur is someone who is determined and won't take no for an answer. If there is a problem, they will find a solution. But more than that, they will find a sustainable solution. The type of social entrepreneur that I want to be is one that doesn't find the solution on my own, but that supports, enables, and builds the confidence of others to find the problems, solutions that will work for them, and then to achieve the change they want. Most importantly, it's not me that assumes the problem and thinks of an amazing solution, it is the people that know themselves and their lives best.

The titles of social entrepreneur and definitely of World Changer may sound conceded to some. It may sound like I want to do everything, that I want power, or that I simply want to do too much and am unrealistic. But to me, when one day I can call myself either of these terms I will be confident and humble. I will change the world by working with others to change their own world. It is important to me not to have a charity approach where I am helping the poor (or whoever the group may be), but instead to have an approach that empowers individuals to achieve amazing things. I want to be the person in the background cheering them on.

So can I write one sentence describing what I mean by these terms? No, not yet. And I am not sure if I will ever be able to. The definition is likely to be ever changing, just like me. What would you define them as?