The Purpose-Driven Social Entrepreneur

by Karim Abouelnaga

  Chapter Two

  Personal Connection

  Question 2: Why Is This Important To You?

  “If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you will

  find an excuse.”

  —Author unknown

  I was at Echoing Green’s All Fellows Retreat in October of 2017 when I attended a reception that was cosponsored by the Campaign for Black Male Achievement. The speaker shared a story about how one day she noticed that there were ants starting to infiltrate her garden, so she started laying stones down to keep them out and throw them off. After she did that, something very fascinating happened. Instead of marching in their straight line like they had been, the ants created new routes. They started to go over, under, and around the rocks to get to where they were going in the garden. She closed by letting the group know that if they were going to succeed as social entrepreneurs, they were going to have to be a lot like the garden ants.

  I would like to take this concept a step further and broaden it to include everyone who is in search of their purpose. Whether you are just starting to find your purpose or are toying with the idea, something will inevitably get in your way. There will be an obstacle, a setback, someone who is trying to scare you, social pressure, or a friend who is advising you to do otherwise. The burden to go over, under, or around falls on you. The garden ant expends more energy having to get around the rock now than it had to before the rocks were placed there, but it is necessary in order to succeed.

  This brings me to the second purpose-finding or purpose-framing question that I reflected on: Why is this important to you? When you have purpose, you have a reason. That reason is what propels you. It pushes you through the obstacles and the setbacks that will inevitably come your way. And it is not just any reason; this is a reason that matters to you. It is personal.

  While the last chapter was all about framing the problem as being important to everyone so you can mobilize other people to support you in your journey, this chapter is all about what it takes to mobilize yourself. This chapter is about framing your problem and what you are doing in a way that is consistent with what you care about. At the end of the day, if you are not inspired or moved by the reason, then it does not matter.

  As I started to learn more about the achievement gap and the disparities in education, I grew incredibly frustrated. I kept thinking about how there were so many people out there who knew about the inequalities that had existed in education for so many decades, but very little progress was being made. I read statistics like first-generation college students graduate at a rate of 11 percent over six years. College was advertised as four years, yet this statistic had to be put at six years or else it might not have broken double digits. I learned that 80 percent of the kids graduating from New York City public schools who attended community colleges had to take at least one remedial class. That meant they were paying to take classes in college that were free for them to take and pass in high school. I started to wonder why they were being allowed out of high school without meeting all of the requirements they needed for college.

  The energy and excitement I received when I thought about the inequality was nothing short of incredibly moving. That was the explosive energy I needed to get to and through Cornell like I did.

  When I finally decided it was time to start Practice Makes Perfect, I was moved by a sense of purpose. At the time, I believed it was only a passion. But in hindsight, I know it was a sense of purpose, and by the time I got to my senior year of college, it had become a sense of moral obligation. I knew why the work was important to me. If I had made one wrong turn at any moment in my path or if I had not had the amazing support of the mentors and the nonprofit organizations that stepped into my life to make sure I was on track to succeeding, I could just as easily have become a negative statistic.

  The premise under which we founded Practice Makes Perfect was that all children, regardless of race or socioeconomic status, have equal potential to compete intellectually in our society. It means that no matter where you are born, what your skin color is, or how much money you have in your pocket, you have the opportunity to unlock and achieve your full potential. Much like I was doing.

  As I continued to build Practice Makes Perfect, it was increasingly obvious to me that I was engaged in my purpose. Much like the kids who are at an educational disadvantage, I was raised by a single mother, I grew up in a low-income neighborhood in a household where English was not my primary language, my family relied on government assistance for food and health care, I was a first-generation college student because no one in my family had gone to college in the United States (let alone, my mother only finished high school in Egypt and my father dropped out of high school in Egypt), and I identified as Black or African American. I could just as easily have been the kid who never made it past the educational disadvantage barrier as I was the kid who made it out and started to defy the odds. That is why this work was important to me. I wanted to make sure that I created something that allowed kids growing up just like me the opportunity to overcome these barriers.

  Far too often, I meet people who claim to be walking in their purpose, without an understanding of why they personally care about the work. You need to understand why this job or this organization or this cause you are committing yourself to is important to you. Without that full understanding, it will be incredibly hard to act like a garden ant when the rock is put in your path to deter you from moving forward.

  Chapter Three

  Self-Evaluation

  Question 3: Why are you the right person to be doing this work?

  “There is a saying that every nice piece of work needs the right person in the right place at the right time.”

  —Benoit Mandelbrot

  At any given moment, I have dozens of approaches or solutions for problems and policies that affect my neighborhood and our country. Some of these solutions are probably ridiculous ideas. Others might have some potential. Unfortunately, none of them matter if I do not have any credibility in the area in which I am proposing the solution. How excited would you be to get culinary lessons from your doctor? Driving lessons from your lawyer? Tax advice from your barber? I am sure there are a few prime examples of barbers who are certified accountants, lawyers who manage driving schools, and doctors who are culinary aficionados. But that is not the norm. More often than not, you go to your lawyer for legal advice, your doctor for medical advice, and your barber for advice on how to style and maintain your hair.

  The final piece of purpose-finding that guided my own reflection was whether or not I was the right person to be carrying out my work to reform public education. Because if I was not the right person, it would not matter if I found an important problem that others identified with or that it was a problem that was personal to me. If I could not convince myself or other people that I was the right person to be engaged in my work, then it would not matter, because I would never be able to garner the support and the resources to address the issue I was so passionate about.

  So let us talk about credibility and things that matter to your audience. One element—and the one I believe is the most powerful—is personal experience with the problem or the solution. Another element that is noteworthy is formal training on addressing the problem or education on the solution. The last element that I believe adds credibility is general experience/wisdom in a related field or area that is similar to the one you are trying to pursue.

  Too often, I find people who believe they are engaged in their purpose after they think of a problem or work that they would like to do. They often have the initial passion but lack a reason why it’s personal. Purpose is passion sustained over long periods of time. We may have an initial inkling that we care about and are willing to devote ourselves to only to find out after a few days, a couple of weeks, or a handful of months that this is not how we want to spend our time or our efforts.

  One o
f the things that I found most really successful entrepreneurs have in common is that they intimately understood the problems they were facing. In many regards, Jeff Bezos wanted to make books more accessible online, Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted to sort information so it would be easier to find, and Bill Gates wanted to make software that would increase the functionality of a computer. In all of those cases, they started to address problems that they had experience grappling with personally. When they spoke about the solutions they were designing, they already had a greater understanding of the problems they were facing than the average person who was also facing that same exact problem. But this is purpose on a big scale.

  Separate from the entrepreneurs who faced the problems personally, there are people who do not start companies or businesses, but instead join them because they are aligned with their missions and they believe in their solutions. I have seen people who were denied social services as children rise up and join social services organizations when they became adults. Similarly, I have seen people who received social services rise up and join social services organizations. It is not uncommon to find people who love to travel and experience cultures join companies that allow them to spread their joy for travel and experience with other cultures to help people find destinations to visit and learn from. I have met lawyers who, after receiving a particular type of counsel when they were children or being denied that counsel, pursue law with the intent of providing that counsel for others. And, of course, there are those doctors who have seen a loved one pass too early and became inspired to help others not have to face the same outcome. They wake up every single day moved by something bigger than themselves, but most importantly, they understand the complexity of the problem they are trying to address.

  There are other ways to build the credibility that you need to be engaged in purpose-driven work besides intimately experiencing the problem that you are trying to address. The broadest area of credibility is the one where you have experience solving the problem in an unrelated area, but the skills you learned in the process are presumably the ones you need to be meaningfully engaged in the work you are interested in. I like to think about fields that are general but largely applicable to almost every industry. For example, if you have spent ten-plus years hiring college students for their first jobs to work for a pharmaceuticals company and now you apply to work for a financial services company hiring college students for their first jobs, odds are you will have a lot of credibility pursuing that other opportunity. The same can be said for people who are working in marketing, sales, management, and finance. Having experience in those functional areas will provide you with credibility if you decide to continue to work in those same areas, regardless of the industry. Of course, there will be nuances and jargon to understand to help make you successful. But the point here is credibility, and it can be transferable across industries.

  As I thought carefully about taking the leap after college to work on Practice Makes Perfect full time, I knew people would judge me based on how passionate I was. I also knew that people would judge me based on whether or not they believed I could actually do this work. I was twenty-one years old and needed to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from lots of different people, so it was important that people believe in me. Not only was I fortunate enough to have experienced the problems firsthand and intimately understand the problem but I also had a host of business experience from working in my father’s store as a kid, interning in financial services while I was in college, and studying business while I was in school. My initial reservations were quelled when I started to think about how I had the skills and the knowledge I ultimately needed to be successful.

  Chapter Four

  Timing Is Everything

  "Without urgency, desire loses its value.”

  —Jim Rohn

  Once you have the answers to the three original questions you reflected on (why is this important, why is this important to me, and why am I the right person to be doing this), you have won a third of the purpose-driven battle. The next two pieces that you need to discover and reflect on for yourself involve inspiration and then timing.

  As it pertains to inspiration, it is not enough to come up with responses that sound good. No one has ever committed their entire life or even a portion of their life to something because it sounded good. The reality is that it also has to feel good. You need to feel like what you are doing is the right thing because it feels right. Maya Angelou has a famous quote that says, “People will forget what you said . . . but people will never forget how you made them feel.” You need to help other people feel like this is the right thing to do.

  At this point, if you have the clarity you need when you think about the three questions and they are enough to inspire you—so much so that you cannot wait to finish getting through this book so you can get started on that job transition, volunteering for the organization in your neighborhood or starting your own organization—then you are at a good point. If you are not, take another moment, pause for a little and continue to reflect on these three questions in order:

  Why is this important?

  Why is this important to me?

  Why am I the right person to be doing this?

  By now, you have clarity and you can, at least, subjectively say that you are inspired by the reflection you have done. The last piece of the puzzle in your purpose-finding journey is to think about the timing. Sometimes you will find things that are important, they mean something to you, and you believe in your heart of hearts that you are the right person to be engaged with them, but the timing is not right. In fact, this is something that would have been great for you to have done five or ten years ago or that would be great five or ten years from now. The easiest way to modify these questions and find out is to add a bit of urgency to them by adding some variation of time sensitivity. Be careful not to jump to these questions directly and to only reflect on these three after you have answered the first three.

  Why is this important right now?

  Why is this important to me right now?

  Why am I the right person to be doing this right now?

  We all have had that friend who has had a dream that they never pursued because the timing was not right for them. They started raising a family, they did not have enough money, or the forces of the universe were simply working against them. Those things are real—okay, maybe not the last one, but the other things are real—and they matter. Ignoring where you are in this moment and failing to have the self-awareness that is necessary to successfully reflect on those questions could be to your detriment. I remember thinking about the first three questions and coming to a point where I knew the work I was doing mattered to society. The achievement gap impacted the economy, so it was relevant to other people. Then I got to a point where I understood why my work in education was meaningful to me. I was the first one in my family to graduate from college, and I had people and organizations that helped me get to that point. And I finally understood that I was meant to be doing this work because of my unique perspective in the education space.

  For some strange reason, that clarity was not enough. I had people say, “Karim, that is great, and I believe in you, but you should come back to this when you are older and have more money or more experience.” And, of course, being the stubborn millennial that I was, I would ignore them. But you can only ignore people for so long before you start to doubt yourself and everything you believe in. By the time I got the same set of advice for the thirtieth time, I became discouraged. I started to think that maybe everyone was right. This work is meaningful and important and I should be engaged in it, but just not at this moment. The moment you start to believe that, it actually comes true. It was not until I had the realization that my reflection was missing a little more intentionality that I overcame the discouragement. It is why I always say the reflection is not complete with those three questions until they are expa
nded to include the three questions that I outlined with the time-sensitivity variation.

  Why is this important right now? There are thousands of issues and jobs out there that you could engage with: homelessness, malaria, Zika, poverty, etc. The majority of people want to focus their time and efforts on things that are important in this moment. Of course it is important for every child to have an opportunity at an equal education, but with so many other persistent problems, something else needs to exist to move people to act on this issue right now, in this very moment.

  When I thought about why the work I was doing was so important right now, I reflected on the statistic, published by the United States Census in 2010, that said by 2023 minority children would comprise more than 50 percent of the school-aged population. That stat created the urgency around the work that I needed to justify to myself and to others that this problem needed to be addressed sooner rather than later. Minority children were the ones who were most likely to attend disadvantaged schools and were most likely to fall victim to the achievement gap. If we did not work to start reversing the inequality and close the gaps in achievement, the negative impact on the economy would only continue to be compounded. If we acted today, we could at least make an effort to rewrite the future.

  When you think about why the work you want to pursue or engage in is particularly important or timely for you in this moment, make sure you reflect on why it did not feel like that yesterday and why you cannot see its being as important for you to pursue a few years from now. Timing is everything.