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From the preface by Bill Drayton:
What is the most powerful force in the world?
It is always a big, pattern change idea…But only if it is in the ...
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From the preface by Bill Drayton:
What is the most powerful force in the world?
It is always a big, pattern change idea…But only if it is in the hands of a great entrepreneur.
That is what has launched every major historic change.
Can those with disabilities be amongst these most powerful people? Of course! Many of Ashoka’s leading social entrepreneur Fellows are.
Every such social entrepreneur makes a mockery of the term “disability”. How can one even begin to think that a social
entrepreneur is “disabled”?
Ashoka’s central purpose is to help the world make the transition from the long millennia during which there were only
a few players to a far happier “everyone a changemaker” society. The Agricultural Revolution produced only a very small
surplus, which meant that only a tiny portion of the population could engage in anything more than creating the small
agricultural surplus needed to support an elite. With change escalating logarithmically, and with change coming from
more and more vectors and combinations of vectors, the “few players” system simply is no longer viable.
The key factor for success for any organization or society increasingly will be measured in terms of what proportion of the
population are changemakers, and what level of this skill they bring, and how well they are connected. (Why did Detroit
and Calcutta wither while San Jose and Bangalore took off?)
What counts in this new world? It is not physical brawn. Instead, it is a very complex set of social skills that every child
and young person must learn empathy, teamwork, leadership, and changemaking. Plus the confidence to acquire these
skills and to define oneself as a changemaker.
In the “everyone a changemaker” world, virtually everyone can be a changemaker.
The disability movement has been intuitively moving in this direction. It seeks to ensure that the 10 percent of the population
who have disabilities live full lives – which ultimately means contributing importantly to society.
The movement’s ultimate gift is that of enabling those it serves to be givers. And that can only mean helping them
become changemakers in a world defined by change.
This end goal is clear and clearly right. Getting there requires brilliant social entrepreneurship. This volume will give you
a sense of the way forward – and also of the magic of social entrepreneurship.
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