Embracing new approaches in the extremes
I was speaking to a student, Hank, volunteering with Saude Crianca, an NGO in Brazil. This student is looking to go to medical school.
Hank told me that he has learned that there is so much application in the United States for emerging entrepreneurial healthcare models that involve volunteerism, innovative practices of looking at healthcare more holistically.
And yet, he felt that in the United States and other “developed” nations, we have surrounded ourselves with bureaucracy and we don’t recognize the groundbreaking approaches being developed elsewhere. The irony that innovation in social entrepreneurship happens “outside of the mainstream”, is actually no irony at all. It is the way it needs to be.
In reality, groundbreaking, forward-thinking entrepreneurism is often done in the extremes, where necessity demands. And those of us living in the comfort zone must look for this innovation and break our boundaries of comfort to embrace new ways to address old problems.
Our world is changing. Emerging economies are challenging traditional business principles. Social awareness and the need to embed social profit alongside financial profit is becoming a reality.
Change is happening, needs to happen, at an exponential pace. As such, we cannot afford to look for solutions only within our old paradigms of comfort.
Like Hank, we need to look outside our comfort zones, learn what entrepreneurs are doing, worrying about, solving in our field … and try to understand how new models are being developed all the time to address old problems.
And while we may not find new answers, we will find new approaches.
Hank told me that he has learned that there is so much application in the United States for emerging entrepreneurial healthcare models that involve volunteerism, innovative practices of looking at healthcare more holistically.
And yet, he felt that in the United States and other “developed” nations, we have surrounded ourselves with bureaucracy and we don’t recognize the groundbreaking approaches being developed elsewhere. The irony that innovation in social entrepreneurship happens “outside of the mainstream”, is actually no irony at all. It is the way it needs to be.
In reality, groundbreaking, forward-thinking entrepreneurism is often done in the extremes, where necessity demands. And those of us living in the comfort zone must look for this innovation and break our boundaries of comfort to embrace new ways to address old problems.
Our world is changing. Emerging economies are challenging traditional business principles. Social awareness and the need to embed social profit alongside financial profit is becoming a reality.
Change is happening, needs to happen, at an exponential pace. As such, we cannot afford to look for solutions only within our old paradigms of comfort.
Like Hank, we need to look outside our comfort zones, learn what entrepreneurs are doing, worrying about, solving in our field … and try to understand how new models are being developed all the time to address old problems.
And while we may not find new answers, we will find new approaches.
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