This is not one of those lists that has the only 5 famous social entrepreneurs to ever have existed, it seems, such as Bill Drayton, Blake Mycoskie Muhammad Yunus etc., just so I can boost my SEO. If you don’t know who they are then just check one of the exhaustive lists of the top 5 social entrepreneurs out there. This is a list showcasing, as the title suggests, the lesser known social entrepreneur, the guy, girl or non-binary person that shows us that ‘We We All Needed’ (see what I did there?) regardless of our means.

I recommend you read through the report but one of the biggest takeaways for me was that 50% of social enterprises, the world over, are led by women. So, maybe it is that as more traditional businesses shift to include social upsides that women and those that need help most in our societies (on a truly global scale) will benefit? The jury is still out on this obviously, but the possibility is there because this is why businesses existed in the beginning, to create value for all stakeholders not just shareholders.

What Is a Social Entrepreneur? According to the dictionary a Social Entrepreneur is a person who pursues novel applications that have the potential to solve community-based problems. I would add that there is often a systematic thought to their approach.

We don't need the title of “social entrepreneur,” “impact leader,” “ecopreneur” or “changemaker” to do something that matters. We are all needed on this journey towards a healthier planet and humanity. Often we have skills or connections that are too obvious for us to realize that we can create impact with.

The WHY, the purpose, the calling, the quest, there are many words for the same concept. We spend so much time pondering this as business owners, because perhaps we are convinced that this is where the rubber meets the road. But have we forgotten to peel off the last layer? Is there something beyond the WHY? I like to believe so, and let me tell you why.

I had a vision of what I wanted it to look like and how I wanted to feel tending to it, however I was acutely aware of the fact that if I planted beetroot I would (at best) get beetroot and not cucumbers. The seeds you choose matter, because what you plant will (hopefully) grow.

Meditation Challenge

Some of you might know that we bought a house about 6 months ago. We bought what some would say “the worst house on a good street.” Having said that, coming from living standards further south in Europe I'm not quite sure what is so bad about it. Yes it isn't huge, the floors aren't exactly the same in every room, there are no folded doors out to a beautiful patio, and granted the farmer that built the house originally had his own methods. As we moved into the house we had grand plans and kept saying ‘yes it is a good house but it needs work’ to everyone that came over for a house tour.

According to the Princeton Seminary Experiment conducted by Princeton social psychologists John Darlet and Dan Batson in the 1970s this can be difficult. The study was conducted on students studying to become priests as they were asked to deliver a sermon. They were asked to hold a sermon in a building across campus and would be evaluated by their supervisors. The researchers were curious about how time pressure would affect the student’s “helpful nature.”

I awake to the sound of the rain pounding against the vegetation outside. After my daily meditation and yoga, I manage to get through to my little girls and husband. The distance is magnified when my oldest doesn’t show any interest to speak to me, my husband says it’s because she misses me too much, but it hurts all the same.

After surviving Neil Armstrong’s lobotomy, which I presume is a control for Ebola or yellow fever, I move into what I assume to be the next room, but later discover is the main body of the airport. The room is like an over-packed club where the doorman has let in too many people,

As I sat myself down in my seat next to Björn, the Swedish Opera singer, on the first leg of my journey that would culminate in my landing in Bangui, the capital city of the Central African Republic, I reflected upon the road that has got me to this life-changing point.

Normality is a paved road:
It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow.

-- Vincent van Gogh

After a week with tons of meetings in the scale-up world of how to create growth in your business as well as how to pivot into growth in hard times, I'm tapped-out on growth strategies. Being a meditation teacher I often talk about making the time for a practice and all the benefits it might give you. Even so (with full respect) it is hard to carve out the time. But if we step back and think about it for a moment- what happens when we don't take our time for grounding and want to grow anyway? Personally, I think we end up creating a world full of weeds.

“I rather dream about doing the thing 3 times a week than actually doing the thing once a week NOW” this is a line that has really stuck with me from a podcast I listened to the other week. It ties into the topic of daydreaming vs living, but it isn't about finding a winner, rather for me it is to lean in and follow the right inclination at the time. There are times for daydreaming and there are times for doing- both are necessary.

I recently read the story of the Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge who in 2018 shattered the marathon world record. When he was asked about the secret to his success he said that the key is not to overwork himself, not trying to be incredibly great all the time, and that he very rarely pushes himself above 80%. Instead his key strengths are his consistency and patience.

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

It started almost 9 years ago now when my first born was just a baby. I was always on my way somewhere, having been an elite swimmer, getting my Bachelor and Masters while studying abroad in the US, and then focusing on my career as CEO of a small Swedish tech company. You could safely say that stillness wasn’t really a part of my life.