Shores on the road to Hope (Alaska)
The Tactics of Hope offers some inspired methods that illustrate how social entrepreneurs can connect with lenders and found businesses based on improving daily life. Pay careful attention to the financial loan structure described at 1min10seconds. Here crowd sourced loans support local businesses development and help people improve their livelihood and pursue their callings.
In previous posts I've mentioned Short Term Survival Trumps Searching For Our Calling, But Only in the Short Term, the Barriers to Social Change, and most recently the Agents of Change. But how do we move forward? This is the next concept in that series (tagged social change). It relates to manifesting the abstract ideas of making a difference by doing something you love. The goal is harnessing community effort into a real and positive societal shift.
I had the pleasure of a short facebook conversation with my good friend Howard from my college years. Once again I was reminded how daunting the task of changing fields can be to a family person with fiscal responsibilities. We become pinned down by the costs of providing our loved ones with the best we can offer. The experience of transformation from a labor that pays the bills, to a labor of love will likely require outside investment. I was challenged to invent a method for people to change their careers, lifestyle, and businesses.
My first solution was a type of venture capitalist that was not purely profit motivated. But how could this work? The best venture capitalists are rewarded financially by funding bright startups and mentoring their investment company's development. This framework would need a different type of investor all together. Part of the problem is how financial rewards work.
Amongst other ways, businesses earn money by having a market share, and selling products at a profit margin (by having cheap overhead/costs). People earn money by doing work for businesses (or themselves), or governments. The key value point we are missing: One isn't rewarded financially even though their efforts may positively impact the lives of a great number of other people. How can we correct this systematic inefficiency? Is it possible we under value life improvement on a large scale? Imagine no internet, no web, or no collaborative globally available encyclopedic information source. As an example, shouldn't the creators of HTTP, TCPIP, and wikipedia be greatly rewarded financially?
It is my belief that we can leverage the form of social crowd sourced loan structure suggested in the video above into a way of fueling our most passionate work. Not only in the most impoverished areas, but within all walks of life. The Tactics of Hope is an organization dedicated to making real, the message I have conveyed through many posts: matching passion with our daily work.
[podcast]http://www.victusspiritus.com/audio/VentureCapitalistsForPursuingACalling.mp3[/podcast]
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