Yunas to youth -- get off your ass -- Social Innovation and Steemit

“What are you waiting for? Get out there and create your future”. In other words.....get off your ass. This conveys the spirit of a Mohammed Yunus’ lecture that I attended.

This is my first post. Im new to Steemit. Ive decided to share some reflections on a lecture I attended by Mohammed Yunus and to ask the network to think about the role of a network like Steemit to support youth social innovators.

As someone interested in untapped human potential, his messages on social business and entrepreneurship raised a number of questions as to how we think about education, skills, employment and the future prospects of youth in the world.

First, about Prof. Yunus -- who is the founder of Grameen Bank and the father of micro-finance – loaning 97% of Grameen resources to women and lending US$1.5 billion last year. The main themes of the lecture can be summarized below:

We are all entrepreneurs

By our nature, humans are curious problem solvers. The true nature of an entrepreneur is to solve problems. Not to make money but to solve problems. The problem and the quest for the solution drive the human spirit. As entrepreneurs we see problems, think about solutions, take action, learn, fail, and try again.

Every problem is a business opportunity

Mohammed Yunus creates companies to solve problems. From his perspective, companies are the best way to perpetuate the use of scare resources. A charity gives money once and it is finished, gone. In a business, the money must be repaid, can be used again and grow. The money comes back.

Social Businesses as problem solving engines

He calls his businesses social businesses. Personal profit is not what gets us up in the morning and the economic theory of self-interest limits the potential of business to do good. Social businesses may not make a profit but they are sustainable. Too many view business as vehicles for the selfish pursuit of money and not for the selfless pursuit of solutions. He creates the latter including Danone solving malnutrition, Sustainable Forestry in Haiti, and Nursing Education, etc. In all of the above cases, those who receive money are expected to act and repay that initial principle – sustaining the next investment, hence, perpetuating growth.

Growth is what all humans need

Youth should be trained to change the world, not find a job. Being trained to find a job is an obsolete idea. We need more job creators than job seekers. Humans are not born to work for someone else but have natural capacity to solve their own problems. We have unlimited potential for creativity. Young people should be inspired to use that creativity to solve problems and change the world (and not limited to learning quadratic equations).

Get off your ass

Why are young people sitting around? Unemployed. That is by choice. What are they waiting for? With 40% youth unemployment in Spain, why are youth not being productive? Why does someone need to give them a job to convey value? Prof. Yunus’ vision of the future is one with no unemployment. In Yunus’ future, young people will look back and ask why were youth unemployed? “Were they sick?” they will ask. Why didn’t they create their own future?

Invest in social business funds

What can governments do to support young entrepreneurs? Create social business funds. Provide capital to help young people start to address global challenges. Invest in ideas and creativity.

As with any provocative lecture, more questions than answers emerge. How should curriculum change to support entrepreneurship? What are the nudges that young people need to find their passion? Can you train entrepreneurs? Should you even try? What would be the perfect multiple choice question to measure entrepreneurship?

Yunus’ vision presumes that the youth of today have the skills and motivation to go forth into the world and conquer. Which brings us back to the fundamental questions of what are these skills and how can they be cultivated? What are the nudges and social capital that will motivate youth?

I've joined Steemit to learn how a blockchain network might create the incentives and resources not just for young people to be content creators and curators but social innovators, world changers and entrepreneurs --- developing skills and ideas that can have an impact in their communities as social businesses to address the global grand challenges of our time. I welcome any thoughts on how the lessons learned so far on Steemit can help support youth social innovators.