Innovation in tough economic times

Much has been written about this topic - innovation stemming from this time of economic hardship - but I continue to find it all very interesting. Here is an article about how recent grads are turning into social entrepreneurs and coming up with great ideas, partially due to the fact that they have the freedom to think about other options now that their prescribed potential high-power, high-money career options have dried up. My take-aways from this article:

1. the importance of finding work that "feeds your soul";
2. and the potential of my generation to learn lifelong lessons from experiences such as these when we are forced to think of new ways to do things and new paths to carve out

These new adventures don't necessarily involve all of the things we "should" be doing with our education , but I'm pretty sure they're going to have good results for our world overall. My question is how to continue to support and encourage opportunities like this for recent grads when the economy begins to recover and the potential for great wealth from traditional career paths returns?

Three Cups of Tea

I just finished reading "Three Cups of Tea" written by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, and it was truly one of the best books I've read in a while. The book basically details Mortenson's quest to build schools to educate girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is a mountaineer who nearly dies on an attempt to summit K2 and subsequently has a change of heart about what he wants to make important in his life from then on. He becomes what I consider to be one of our greatest social entrepreneurs as he works to fulfill his mission to bring peace through education.

Some of the pieces of his story that I found most remarkable were:

• the determination he showed to complete his goals and keep his promises despite MANY obstacles
• the relationships he formed with his "second family" of Pakistanis thousands of miles from his home
• the way that he integrated himself into a completely foreign culture and came to love it
• his efforts to share his personal story and knowledge of Muslim people post-9/11 in an attempt to diffuse the hatred that was seeping into Americans' culture for this "enemy"

We discussed the book in a book club gathering last night (accompanied by a delicious Pakistani meal!), and one of the questions/comments that arose was a general admiration for Mortenson's complete faith in his mission and his choice to give up most material possessions in order to achieve this mission. I think it's a very real tension that is becoming more apparent as we face the deterioration of our economy and a serious reduction in opportunities for people to "get rich" in the ways that have worked for the past 15 years or so. What is the price of doing humanitarian work? Does the benefit outweigh the cost? Is there a happy medium? Where does idealism meet reality in our financially-based society?

I have some thoughts on this trade-off, which I'll share in a subsequent post because it's a topic that I'm pretty interested in and passionate about ... and I could ramble on, making this the longest post ever! But, for now, read the book! I hope you will love it and be inspired.