The Blurb: In this ultimate guide to social entrepreneurship, author and founder of Entrepreneur4Change, Ron Schultz, brings together some of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs who share invaluable insight, lessons learned and guidance on how to run your own venture that strives to make a positive impact.
The History: Ron Schultz is the founder and executive director of the microfinance/micro-enterprise lending program, Entrepreneurs4Change, providing entrepreneurial education and neighbour-to-neighbour lending programs for social businesses, veterans, and marginalized communities. This is his 23rd book to date.
The Basics: The book is divided into three parts: theory, application and practice, each one offering compelling, personal stories from social entrepreneurs in the field who’ve achieved immense success and impact, as well as practical takeaways for anyone wanting to devote their lives in a similar fashion.
The Impact: Unlike many other books out there that tell great stories but offer little practical substance, this one proffers pragmatic tools and advice that can be used effectively as the bible of sorts for social entrepreneurial wannabes and those already working in the field. For anyone interested in deliberative disruptive design – eschewing the traditional design and replacing it with a new approach – the book is a must-have.
Read our interview with Ron Schultz here
The Takeaway: With such an impressive pool of social innovators lending their wisdom and practical advice, the takeaways are many. Add those to the brilliant insights offered by Schultz, a social entrepreneur in his own right, and any reader will feel smarter and more empowered upon the book’s completion.
One of the more powerful takeaways comes from the discussion on collaboration – best achieved, offers Schultz et al., when focused on alignment not agreement, since the former is focused on working toward a shared goal, while the latter is opinion and ego-based.
The book also provides important lessons learned when it comes to the concept of change, probably one of the more challenging goals for social entrepreneurs today. Using theory and examples, we learn what works, what doesn’t and how one can most effectively create the favourable conditions for change, making Creating Good Work that much more possible.