Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

What are good examples of social entrepreneurism in your communities and how does it inspire you to live or work differently?

first of all, what the heck is "triple bottom line"?

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Rich Sloan , Co-Founder, Chief Startupologist, StartupNation

This is not from my own community but is inspiring enough to share.

A woman who is an acquaintance of mine had founded an investment bank back in the 90s. She had developed some software that included additional criteria beyond the usual accounting stuff, but found that training financial types to use it was super expensive. So, she went to a very depressed part of the city and set up a training program there, taught the people who came to it all about computers, her software, and basic financial stuff so she could hire them to process her data.

Well these people got together and formed their own company, which my friend happily contracted with for data processing services. Soon they were contracting with other securities firms and making really good money -- enough to start buying the decrepit buildings in their neighborhood from HUD and improving them, providing jobs, and teaching others in their neighborhood about entrepreneurship and how money works.

It was very successful and the neighborhood began pulling itself out of dire poverty, in some insanely short amount of time like less than 2 years or something. Unfortunately it came to an end when a contractor who was losing boatloads of money on HUD contracts sued her and drove the whole shebang out of business, but that`s another story.

From these and other lessons learned, I`ve come to understand that problems are, quite literally, exactly the same things as opportunities. It`s completely changed the way I handle crisis and stress... instead of freaking out, I take a step back and wait for the opportunity to make itself apparent. And it ALWAYS does sooner or later.

—paula


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Rich Sloan , Co-Founder, Chief Startupologist, StartupNation

Thanks - I can`t wait to check these out!!!! Keep the recommendations coming!

honestly, i`ve globe trotted a ton and never had a better meal.

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Rich Sloan , Co-Founder, Chief Startupologist, StartupNation