The Genius of Youth and the Dreams of Entrepreneurs

Last night, I attended an amazing event here on Vashon Island. It was a youth-adult discussion forum, moderated by the very talented storyteller, Michael Meade, a Vashonite. The theme was "a crisis of culture and the genius of youth". In my discussions with a couple of high schoolers, I was particularly struck by what they felt the genius of youth meant. We discussed how important the wide-eyed dreamer aspect of youth is, but also how important it is to balance that with the pragmatism and experience of elders. It struck me that that balance is exactly what make social enterprise tick. It's vitally important to balance the enthusiasm, passion and wide-eyed dreaming so necessary in allowing social ventures ideas to hatch with the structure, information and experience of those that have been there before.

I guess that's one of the reasons I'm so passionate and wide-eyed about scaling Sustayne. I deeply believe that it blends both of these aspects - it creates a space for dreaming, but provides structure and pragmatic information to help dreamers get their dreams into a tangible and sustainable format. It's the passion for that dream that keeps me going, but I've also had to be careful about tempering that dream with reality and pragmatism. I guess that's the balance for us all - a constant work in progress.