Being a Social Entrepreneur

Today, I attended a panel discussion with CEO and founder of Ashoka, Bill Drayton, and a number of KSG students who are self-made "social entrepreneurs", each with some NGO of sorts under their belt. After spending some time going through what each of the students was involved in, Drayton asked, "What was the first thing you ever created?" That struck me as a rather intruiging question, so I tried to think of all the glorious things that I had "created" in my lifetime. I certainly was not prepared for some of the panelists to answer along the lines of "I started a computer consulting company at age 14" and "I made a nationally-televised documentary at age 22." Mind boggling!

I have a friend who set up an NGO when she was in high school to help the homeless in her hometown. When I first heard it, I was dumb-founded. I for one can honestly say that setting up an NGO was the last thing on my mind during my time in JC. What was I doing when I was 14? What have I achieved at age 24? I guess it was always my assumption that you can't achieve much as a kid (and my that I mean while you're still in school), but it seems that these people are clear counter-examples.

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young,
but set an example for the believers in speech, in life,
in love, in faith and in purity." (1 Timothy 4:12)