In an increasingly connected world it is less likely that a few people 'manage' everyone else. The new environment requires a shift in the organization of both institutions and societies, one of flexible teams of teams that come together around whatever change opportunities exist and then reform around the next.

Bill Drayton

Categorized in : Opportunity Organization Team

Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.

Bill Drayton

fishing teacher giving

Of course you can do it. It doesn't require brilliance. It's just giving yourself permission and then being persistent. Persistent in seeing the problem or opportunity and persistent in thinking about it until you have come up with some interesting ideas that might change the pattern. It's really a mindset, not anything in the objective world - that is the problem.

Bill Drayton

opportunity ideas thinking

An entrepreneur is someone who brings a pattern change.

Bill Drayton

patterns entrepreneur

The job of a social entrepreneur is to recognize when a part of society is stuck & to provide new ways to get it unstuck.

Bill Drayton

entrepreneur jobs way

There is nothing more powerful than a new idea in the hands of a social entrepreneur

Bill Drayton

powerful hands ideas

The one single factor that determines society’s success is the percentage of change-makers within it.

Bill Drayton

percentages determine makers

What does an entrepreneur do? The first thing is they've given themselves permission to see a problem. Most people don't want to see problems ... Once you see a problem and you keep looking at it you'll find an answer.

Bill Drayton

entrepreneur business people

What is our job as entrepreneurs if not to change things that are crazy?

Bill Drayton

entrepreneur crazy jobs

Listening is understanding. The skill of empathy is a must to be able to listen...One can listen better if one sees the whole.

Bill Drayton

empathy understanding skills

It's not to give people fish It's not to teach them how to fish It's to build a new and better fishing industry

Bill Drayton

fishing leadership people

The biggest problem is getting beyond the "you can't" syndrome. The moment you figure that out, you're on your way to flying. Anyone who cannot see problems around him or herself is utterly blind. All the problems sitting there are an invitation for you to be creative, make use of your skills and resources and find a solution.

Bill Drayton

flying skills creative

What is the most powerful lever you can imagine? A big idea, but only if it's in the hands of a truly outstanding entrepreneur. It starts with the person and the idea, and then grows to the institution. All three are intertwined.

Bill Drayton

powerful hands ideas

We need to teach empathy as we do literacy.

Bill Drayton

literacy empathy needs

Everyone says youve got to do a foundation and legal structure to finance social change. What nonsense!

Bill Drayton

nonsense finance foundation

Imagine a world where everyone is really a change maker.

Bill Drayton

imagine makers world

Entrepreneurs almost always have to step out of existing institutions that embody old ways of doing things to build their vision.

Bill Drayton

entrepreneur vision way

Good entrepreneurs can manage, but no one but an entrepreneur can entrepreneur, let alone help build and lead the world's community of leading social entrepreneurs and their top business entrepreneur allies.

Bill Drayton

allies entrepreneur community

The social entrepreneurs are governments' best friends.

Bill Drayton

entrepreneur government social

Thomas Jefferson explained, Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated. .. If Congress can determine what constitutes the general welfare and can appropriate money for its advancement, where is the limitation to carrying into execution whatever can be effected by money?.

Bill Drayton

advancement execution welfare

We have to have a revolution so that all young people grasp empathy and practice it. This is the most fundamental revolution that we have to get through.

Bill Drayton

empathy practice people