Keep on Keepin' On

Michael Meade is one of my favorite authors and happens to be a Vashon Islander like myself. I was recently listening to a CD of his on mentoring and came across this thought "to not live your dreams causes younger people to lose theirs." It got me thinking - hard. Being an entrepreneur is tough. Being a social entrepreneur is even tougher. There are days when I wonder what I'm doing. I'm a single parent. I try to keep my life simple, but I have a house, 2 young kids and a business to run. Why can't I just go out and get some high-paying corporate gig and quit worrying about cash flow, about trying to scale a methodology, about creating impact in the world? Because I can't. Because I have a dream - one I've been feeding for over 7 years. I deeply believe that applying the rigor of business to the framework of how we address social and environmental issues IS critical to changing the world. I deeply believe that all those intrapreneurs (entrepreneurs working within organizations) in the public and nonprofit sectors and all those entrepreneurs who are starting and running private business that have a social or environmental bottom line are making a difference one transaction at a time. And, I believe that the work I do in the world and the curriculum (Sustayne) I've developed with Bainbridge Graduate Institute is a highly effective tool in helping these ideas to get off the back of a cocktail napkin, get reworked into something feasible and get launched. I believe the work of Social Enterprise Group changes the world by providing an important toolkit for others who are changing the world.

We recently called several of our past Sustayne participants to find out how they're doing. This tool had a lasting impact for every single one of them. That matters. To me, to my company, to every single on of our clients and to all the clients and customers they serve.

So, when I ask myself why I can't just "get a real job"? It's because if I don't live my dream, there might be some fantastic social venture ideas that never quite get off the ground. And, my kids might not have the inspiration they need to live their dreams.

The Pilates of Social Enterprise?

I was amused to stumble across Yale professor Jeff Trexler's blog http://www.trexfiles.com/ that discusses Sustayne, our comprehensive business planning methodology for social ventures. I love the comparison to Pilates. Yes, we are definitely trying to get a proven, quality methodology out there and get as many instructors/consultants as possible trained to deliver this to social entrepreneurs in all sectors in all parts of the world. Why? Because I deeply believe that a powerful tool for changing the world is entrepreneurs - specifically social entrepreneurs. AND, I believe that these entrepreneurs need as much assistance as possible in the early stages of developing their ventures to determine how best to develop their business model and set it up from success from the get go. Sustayne is based on the life work of Gifford Pinchot III, author, entrepreneur and founder of Bainbridge Graduate Institute www.bgiedu.org . He has been using this method with Fortune 500 companies and major government agencies, such as the US Forest Service for over 20 years. I've been working for the past several years to organize it and modify it to fit social venture development. Voila! Sustayne is born.

Mr. Trexler also spends a couple of lines lamenting the name Sustayne. So, for anyone who's interested, here's where it came from:
the word sustayne was used widely in 16th and 17th century poetry and was generally used to reference sustaining oneself spiritually, emotionally and physically
- it harkens back to a time when society, the earth and business were inextricably linked – the impacts of one on the others was widely known
- this work comes from my deep belief that bringing this link deliberately back into the way we develop solutions to social and environmental issues as well as the way we sustain ourselves financially IS an important key to making a real change in the world
- we use a water wheel as the logo – again, a symbol of the time this word was used as well as fitting into Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of Motion (originated in 1687; from Wikopedia.com) :

o Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and objects at rest tend to stay at
rest, unless an outside force acts upon them.
o The net force on an object
is equal to the product of its mass and its acceleration.
o To every action
(force applied) there is an equal and opposite reaction (equal force applied in
the opposite direction).

Sustayne is the force that generates the motion to cause a reaction.

So, we’re pleased even the name causes a reaction! For more info., go to www.socialenterprisegroup.com or call 206.903.8578.