I feel that some people think I am a person of pride and conceitedness. It peeves me. But maybe only because it's true. But I write something of a retort, or at least something to think about. When you do a social enterprise, remember that it's not about you. This last sentence (even formatted for emphasis) entails three things I want to highlight.
1. It's not about you, so don't expect it'll be in your comfort zone.
In an organization I am a member of, this point has shown like sunlight dawning at the end of a long, hopeless night. It is refreshing, beautiful, full of hope. I've seen people skip sleep, work for hours even after their 10 hour corporate jobs, admittedly lazy people going out of their comfort zone to work 14 hours a day - for free. I was initially an introvert and a follower, but when you're in a social enterprise, it doesn't care about your MBTI. There is a vision, there is a need, and sometimes you have a solution, that you can only impart by leaving the bubble of your comfort zone. I was (and am still) an introvert, yet everday I am forced to meet strangers to negotiate partnership deals, motivate 22 people to work for solutions, to handle different kinds of people. Tasks light years away from the silent JC in high school who couldn't utter a word to strangers. But it's not about you, and to stay inside your quiet comfort zone, that is not humility, that is pride, that is arrogance. To lead because you have to, to skip sleep for people poorer than you, to risk things to change lives... that is humility.
2. It's not about you, so shut up about your fear of failure.
Do you think the people living below minimum wage care about your failure? Are you so afraid that those poeple who might not even get their 3 full meals a day would look down on you for failing after trying to change their lives? It's not about you, it's about them. When you sell your product or do your tasks in a social enterprise, stop thinking about how your negotiating aggressively will affect your image, this is not about you, you are negotiating in behalf of the mother worrying whether her child will have a good education tomorrow! When you stop working for a project that can change lives because you fear your failure, that is not being humble, that is pride. Swallow your pride, fail. Because it's not about you, it's their lives that are at stake. And they have a little less to lose, and (with your help) a better life to gain.
3. It's not about you #yolo - Pedro Calungsod
If he had a Twitter account, maybe he would've said something like that. His colleague Lorenzo Ruiz had a similar thing to say: "If I had a thousand lives to live, I would offer each one of it" (the full version might not reach Twitter's 140 characters). I hope, as you chose the path of social entrepreneurship, it is clear that not even your life is for you. So don't live it off to wake up one day realizing you've spent it playing video games, travelling luxuriously, and, well, nothing of real consequence. Real consequence is consequence that affects the lives of other people. That, I guess, is the human condition. We are inevitably tied with the other. We are relational, we love loving, and our happiness depends on this thing called love. Then, perhaps, the happiest humans, are the ones who've loved the most. Loved the 'other' the most. It is no secret that the saints, Mother Teresa, St. John Bosco, Blessed Pedro Calungsod, have an undeniable joy overflowing from their death smiles. It is because their lives have been of real consequence, that is, their lives have affected other people. For love of them. So, you only live once. Don't live it for your self. Leave real consequence.