Spoke at Social Entrepreneurship event tonight

over at U of W.  This is Susan Schreter’s class.  nice bunch eh?  Talked at some length about software and Energy and how all that led to Kashless.  During the Q&A one of the students asked “so what makes you a social entrepreneur?”  I don’t think I did a good job answering it there and I don’t think they liked my answer. My answer at the time was “I don’t think of myself as a social entrepreneur, only an entrepreneur.”   “You have to focus on money first, anything else is gravy.” 

But on the drive back, I started thinking deeper.  What is a “social entrepreneur”?  Well, someone who works for things in addition to money.  I have retired twice. I have a nice house in Hawaii.  Why I am I still working?  Which is more important, make money or do good?  I think the students were looking for a bright line.  I am not sure there is one, but I have come up with mine. 

A social entrepreneur is an entrepreneur first (makes money) and does good second. 

If you get the social part right and get the entrepreneur part wrong, you run out of money and have nothing.  If you get the entrepreneur part right and the social part wrong, you can always work on it later because you are making money and are sustainable.  Non-profit = non-sustainable. Then the question becomes “how much money?”  If you wan to be an entrepreneur to make as much money as possible you are probably not a social entrepreneur.  If you have already made some money or have come to the point in your life where you realize there is more to life than money and you still want to be an entrepreneur, you may be getting closer to a social entrepreneur.  But make no mistake about it, the “social” part without the “entrepreneur” part is just a Socialist.