Why I Believe In Social Entrepreneurs

Last week, in Paris, Live For Good, an NGO I helped create, hosted an event to connect social entrepreneurs to industry leaders, other NGOs and mentors. Together we talked about the importance of social entrepreneurship, and the role it plays not only in making the world a better place, but in helping to lift more bright, ambitious young people out of unemployment.

People like Yassine Riffi, of Humans Relais. Yassine is an incredible young man. By talking to many homeless people on the streets of Paris, and by truly getting to know them, he recognized that they have a wide, diverse range of needs and wants. It might be to take a shower. It might be to eat a home-cooked meal. Or it might even be to see the seaside for the very first time. On the other hand, there are many citizens out there who want to help those less fortunate than themselves. While financial support for homeless charities and shelters is fantastic, Yassine has embraced the challenge of building a platform and developing an economic model to connect these two groups of people.

Helping to support these types of social causes is very close to my heart and important to my entire family. We originally established Live For Good in line with the passions of my late son, Gabriel. The foundation helps leaders, under the age of 27, get their ideas off the ground through a 10-month support program. Our goal is to give these inspirational young people the support they need as they work to shape, change and improve our society.

Through the foundation, I try to take some of what I do at Microsoft and translate that into helping young social entrepreneurs. In my professional role I try to help my teams to reach their full potential by mentoring, coaching and challenging my colleagues to produce their very best work. Work that will have a positive impact on our customers and the local economies we serve. By helping to coach and support the passionate social entrepreneurs I meet in a similar way, I hope to play a small part in their journey towards creating a fairer, better world.

In my job I’ve also had the pleasure of working with many tech startups. And over the past few years, I’ve learned that startups and social entrepreneurs are very similar. For a start, people need to realise that social entrepreneurs really are entrepreneurs! They are incredibly passionate, driven by their vision, possess a growth mind-set and have a clear sense of purpose in their life. But one of their most important behavioural traits is resilience. All entrepreneurs will tell you that you meet with so many challenges, and you will fail so many times along the way. Those who will succeed in making a difference are those with tenacity and a sharp focus on their ultimate goal. 

According to the World Bank, of the one billion additional young people who will enter the job market in the next decade, only 40% are expected to be able to get jobs that currently exist. It’s our responsibility to make sure that the negative prophesies about future youth unemployment rates do not come to pass. We need to unleash the potential of youth, in my home country of France, but also in every single part of the world. We need to help more young people to build up their self-confidence, develop their capabilities and uncover their hidden talents. By doing so, we can make a real difference in the world, and perhaps find our own personal purpose along the way.

I think Mark Twain put it best when he said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born, and the day you find out why.”