I often get asked about what inspired me to go into impact entrepreneurship. The idea behind creating my own social enterprise C3 – Companies Creating Change didn’t follow a heroic event or a pivotal life moment. C3 was born out of a feeling of frustration.
Volunteering
As a teen, I always volunteered. I was involved in supporting the elderly in my town’s hospice. I was also tutoring underprivileged kids while studying, and serving the homeless at government canteens.
Despite a lot of effort and commitment over the years, I always felt I could do better.
Finally, while doing my MBA in New York, I was involved in a few skills-based volunteering projects. I used my business skills to support NGOs and social enterprises in need of pro-bono consulting support. I felt it was a much more impactful use of my time and skills!
Dubai
Once in Dubai a few years later, I searched for organizations that could provide skills-based volunteering opportunities. I found it was difficult to find any. I wanted to serve change-makers who had set up their businesses through impact entrepreneurship to serve a social or environmental cause. Additionally, I wanted to help them build sustainable business models. Social entrepreneurship and enterprises are the most effective and sustainable way to solve global challenges. I wanted to follow suit.
I spent a full summer complaining about the lack of skills-based volunteering opportunities. My husband finally said: "Why don’t you start something on your own, instead of whining!" A good friend of mine, Rama Chakaki, provided me with a list of emerging social entrepreneurs. They focused on impact entrepreneurship and needed help.
Long story short, I started supporting those few impact entrepreneurs.
Initially, I was doing it on my own, and then I began collaborating with a few like-minded professionals. Eventually I met my co-founder, Anna-Liisa Goggs, who joined me to grow a community project into a full-fledged platform.
Through C3, we have supported 1,000+ impact-driven entrepreneurs. We created a network of 4,000+ experts and engaged 100+ VCs and investment firms in several accelerator programs across MENA, sponsored by blue-chip companies. Some were HSBC, Accenture, Standard Chartered, Engie, Discovery Network, to name a few.
I could never have imagined that a frustrating moment combined with a lot of energy, a network of amazing humans, and very little budget, could become a regional platform that incredible impact-driven entrepreneurs benefit from!
So, how can you or your kids become impact entrepreneurs? Here are simple steps on your journey towards achieving that:
Identify your mission
If there was one thing that I took away from my experience that you can share with your kids, it's this:
Be the change you want to see in the world.
Observing the world around them, being aware of the challenges that different communities are facing and thinking of new ways of solving these challenges will get them into an entrepreneurial mindset, take ownership of the world around them and lead by example. And, surprisingly, children can be incredibly good at that. They see the world from a different perspective and with lots of empathy.
If we instill this impactful and change-making spirit from a young age, we will be in good hands.
Find your tribe
If you go alone, you will not go far. Identify a group of people who are aligned with your mission and values. It will push you to go further and attract new perspectives. We can realize impact once we align our efforts.
Often, you will find these people within your circle. However, you will also find supporters in perfect strangers: there is so much goodwill around us!
Believe in what you are doing and the mission you are trying to achieve. Find the tribe that will support you and only push you forward.
Going beyond your circle of family, friends, and acquaintances. Empower yourself and your kids to build a network of people who will bring value to their mission. You will see how many experts and professionals join their impactful journey.
Encourage your kids to seek advice from their teachers, family friends, from parents’ circles, and from any community groups they are part of. Encourage them to go out there and explore it for themselves!
Small savings go a long way
Thinking that the best time to kick-start your impact journey is when you have it all figured out will not get you anywhere. Encourage your kids to take the first step. They will figure things out along the way with the right support system.
True, they will make mistakes.
But instilling a culture of small savings that you later invest in an impactful project will have a tremendous effect on them.
They can think about the way they “manage” money and allow them to understand the importance of saving and investing from a young age.
Aligning purpose with profits will surely keep them motivated for the rest of their lives.
Discussing impact entrepreneurship with teenagers might seem complicated at first. However, once you trickle it down to its essence, it is all about pushing them to take the initiative to solve challenges that they see in their everyday lives. It's empowering them to ask for help, plan ahead and set their mind to a specific goal that might turn out to be a life-changing experience.
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