If social enterprise was in a relationship...

If Social Enterprise was in a relationship with the Other Sectors, its facebook relationship status would be “it’s complicated.”

http://nicktemple1.files.wordpress.com

Social Enterprise is a sweet, quirky little lady who shies away from commitment and labels, but who absolutely loves spending time with Business, Nonprofit, and Public Sector.  If she was being honest with herself, she would admit that she is a bit of tease.  She loves each Sector so much that she’s actually begun to take on the qualities of each. 

It’s not really fair to the others.   

When they go out together, she steals all of the attention.  She’s a hot little number.  And she has a lot to say, and a real way with words.  She’s ambitious and bright and has good intentions.

When she talks to her friends, she’s all, “I think Business is so smart and he’s obviously going places in life; I can really see a future with him.  But Nonprofit has such a big heart and I really love his spirit; he makes me to want to be a better person. And well, Public Sector is just so strong and charismatic; besides, you know he always finds a way to make me laugh, even when he screws up.”

And obviously she can’t decide.  So she sees them all casually.  She gets what she needs from each of them and kind of does her own thing. She’s young and independent.  This is her prerogative.

But, sometimes, it gets complicated.

www.justmeans.com

 

If you’ve never heard of “social enterprise”, good for you!  Dear, lucky you…

If you’ve never heard of “social enterprise”, then your language is probably joyfully devoid of excessive use of terms like “incubation of innovation” and “impact investing” and “scaling up sustainably” and “disrupting the system”.  

You’ve probably never in all your life experienced as much “inspiration” as people who talk about social enterprise either.

www.ebbf.org

I know how I sound.  I sound a little cynical.  And I don’t mean to be.  Social enterprise is a fantastic model and concept for achieving positive social change.  But I am an over analytical person who would rather ask questions than have entire conversations in buzz phrases.  (My mom always supported this question asking thing… she said that that’s how we learn.  She’s very wise.)

And, to be fair, if you’re just realizing that I’m a cynic, then we clearly haven’t met and you don’t read my blog regularly.

But, my point is, it’s complicated.  Think about it.

(I’ll have new thoughts soon.. probably.)

P.S. I know I’ve hyperlinked the crap out of this post, but I wanted to give you a taste of perspectives and issues that exist.  If you want to know more, OMG there is so much more.  Just Google it, my friends.