"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step", a Chinese proverb says.
When in 2006 Bill Gates announced that he was going to leave Microsoft to spend most of his time in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, I started to further think about life priorities.
I first heard about Social Business about 1 year ago, when I accidentally read the book "Creating a World Without Poverty" by Prof. Yunus. I was immediately extremely fascinated by this new idea, and, even if I still don't know why I did it, one night I sent him an email, and he replied to me from his blackberry the following day. I was very surprised, if not shocked, and that was the beginning of my journey in the Social Business world!
I went to Dhaka in Bangladesh to meet him, togheter with my friends doctor Pietro Sodani and Lawrence Faulkner. That day has changed my life.
Since then many things have happened, and I'm now personally involved in 3 health care Social Business in Asia and Africa:
- Grameen-Cure2Children, to cure Thalassemia in Bangladesh
- Cure Thalassemia, to cure Thalassemia in India
- Andare Oltre, to cure Club foot in Burundi
I've attended Grameen events (in 3 cases as speaker) in:
- Bangladesh (Social Business Day)
- Germany (Grameen Global Meeting, Klassentreffen)
- Scotland (Grameen-Caledonian Glasgow Global Assembly)
- Italy (Grameen Creative Lab @Bocconi, Prof. Yunus' speach @Teatro Dal Verme).
I've spoken face-to-face with Prof. Yunus a number of times.
I've been cited in some pages of Prof. Yunus' new book "Building Social Business", whose chapter 4 is entirely dedicated to Grameen-Cure2Children.
In the meanwhile I've read more than 15 books on the topic of social business, social entrepreneurship and philantrocapitalism, to learn as much as I can (you can find them on the left side-bar).
I think that Social Business is a great idea, and it will have a huge impact in the coming years, and not only in developing countries. It will not magically solve all the social problems, but it will contribute to alleviate (and in some cases solve) some of them, without using taxpayers and/or donors money, but mainly the creativity and passion of social entrepreneurs.
It is a business, but the main and unique goal is to solve a social problem, and not to make money. And this is why it is completely different from capitalism, whose main goal and side effects are not always positive.
I like and love Social Business, and in this blog (also available in Italian) I'll tell:
- the behind the scenes of what I'm doing in the 3 Social Business
- my involvement in the Grameen events
- my thoughts and point of view on this fascinating topic that is contributing in changing the world.
To stay in touch with you and keep you informed, I'll use extensively the social media. You can follow me here:
My journey in the Social Business world keeps going, welcome on board!
if you have comments, please write here in the blog.
