Humans On Purpose

I’ve just been in Africa. I was talking to people out there who are using mobile phones, using smart phones, for the first time. We’ve now got Android phones that sell for 35 dollars and for 35 dollars and a little bit of data they can get access to the same stuff as President Obama can get. That’s amazing and its one of the things that I most enjoy.

It’s easy to slip away and waste one's life but if you put structures around yourself that pushes you to being what you could be and what you aspire to be, then that's motivation in itself in a different way.

It all starts from caring and listening to people. Hearing what they have to say. There is a lot of stigma attached, lots of stereotyping and it is just ignorance, people not knowing what disability is. I never saw people as disabled, I never looked at what people couldn’t do, just what they could do and planned their position on the line. 

I love what I do. Sounds cheesy but I am into my 34th year and I love Clarity and the people at Clarity. I became part of one big family and part of their lives inside and outside of the working hours. I have spent more time here than I’ve spent with my children and husband and they have always been used to this.  They have seen what I have given to people less fortunate. I would like to think that if one day you needed something, that stranger would help you. That is the code I have lived my life by. I would like to think there is someone out there looking out for me too.

Day to day, I will spend at least an hour on the shop floor, that is where I am connecting with everybody, so if people do have a problem they can always get my attention and we can have a chat, and we sort things out. I was their friend before I became their manager and I think I have kept that balance. It makes me smile when everyone is working and happy and looking forward to coming back tomorrow.

I started lobbying and the more people told me it wasn’t possible the more driven I was to find ways around the problem, to take on those challenges and prove those individuals wrong. I guess that’s me, that’s the way that I am.

Winning an award was just incredible, it was a moment of lightness and joy and happiness in what had been a really really awful time. I guess it spurred me on, it opened a door for me. It said this is the way that life is going to go from here, it was about opening up to the possibilities of this new way of being and new way of working that I’d never considered before. In this weird way (obviously I lost my vision and I had a terrible time), the fact that I’ve been able to turn it into something positive and set my life on a new course (which otherwise I wouldn’t have done), is a wonderful thing.

I really like that, that spirit of not tying ourselves down to, or defining ourselves in opposition or aggressively against something. It’s much more about identifying the point where pressure could be released and releasing it and then stepping outside of the system again.. buccaneering if you like. I wouldn’t fit in to the traditional campaigner model but I think I’ve achieved more because of that.

Like the Tottenham project I did. I let the young business people choose their picture, and we did it together. And we got it… we take it until they are happy… And as far as the potato farmers project in Malawi and Ethiopia… I wanted to take them as naturally as possible so that you get to know the people. And I didn’t want to show them as… I wanted to give them their pride. I don’t want them to be seen as victims. So many charity photographs show miserable people – well they’re not miserable people, they’re just people who haven't got all of the privileges that we do and need a bit of help. I make photographs. We make it together. Because it isn’t there before, and if I went back now it would be different too. It’s like making a cake really – putting in all of the different ingredients.

By all means experiment in your twenties because you don’t know what you are good at, at that stage.  You don’t know what your talents really are… but once you settle for something make sure, make sure you believe in it.  Don’t just do it for the money. Don’t just do it for its fun… I mean like I did in Shell…  It was interesting, I learnt a lot, but I knew, I knew, that I couldn’t go on doing it because, quite honestly I didn’t believe in it enough for my life.  Not that it isn’t important shipping oil around the world but it isn’t me.  So do something that you believe in, and then you’ll do it seriously and then you’ll do it well, and then the rewards will be exciting.

I started out being interested in business, but at the same time I was also aware of the social injustice in the world. My mother is a social worker and my father is a therapist, so I grew up being aware of how privileged I was, with two parents caring for me and living in one of the richest countries in the world. I always had the impression that it’s my obligation (or at least definitely something I wanted to do) to contribute to making this injustice and this inequality at least not get any worse. And as I was passionate about business, I thought I could use those skills to do that. 

I think I get out of bed for two reasons in the morning. One is because I have this - and it’s been since I was a child - this drive to make the world better. I think that having that sense of social purpose means that I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror if I didn’t feel I was doing something that sat with my values and ethics… The other thing that really motivates me is the people that I work with and in this job I’ve been able to build my own team from nothing to 12 and get that sense of real satisfaction... just to see the people I work with flourish and develop and go on and do better and more exciting things – I get real inspiration from the people I work with as well as the stuff I work on.

For various reasons, I’ve met I don't know how many Nobel Laureates. I guess there’s been so much around me of people that are giving this amazing service. Working in development or social enterprise has been natural and tempting and easy, really. From that angle it was the obvious thing to do.  When I graduated it wouldn't have even occurred to me to work in a normal job because I didn't really know anyone who did... I didn't know what that looked like.  

I have come back to social enterprise because I can get fired up about it - about making change, whether it is large or small. I love the challenge of innovating. I am at my best when I have freedom to do it my way. Thankfully there is a lot of space for that in the sector.

It is a bit sad to be only self-regarding and self-absorbed and a bit boring just to focus on getting rich or being famous all of which end up meaning that you're less alive.   My motivations aren't primarily to do with altruism particularly, more a sense that being fully human means getting involved in different things, being open to stimulation, giving as well as taking.

What I’m looking more at is the notion that all the problems that we are trying to solve through social enterprise, have one even more elegant solution.  That is to stop messing around.  If we replaced the frenetic action with a very humble balance of action and non-action, we basically stop causing those problems and there is very little left to solve.  But … that isn’t a step that directly follows from the old fashion competitive market mindset.  Social enterprise is a very important step in between.

I think what I was most inspired by, what I’m constantly inspired by, is people’s ability to carry out what they want to do with as much regard for doing those actions as they have for themselves. I think there’s a huge power in recognising that actually, things that make you uncomfortable are often worth doing in order to make others more comfortable. 

There can be a lot of hype about the social investment space, but actually social investment means nothing if it doesn’t tackle disadvantage or generate opportunity. And that ultimately is why we do what we do. I think success for us obviously means creating financial deals that enable poverty to be tackled. We can often say that capitalism and the financial markets do not serve people well, therefore there’s an incumbency on us to say "how can we create deals that enable that?”.

Dominic, co-CEO and Founder of Numbers4Good

A complete commitment to the journey of your own self unfolding, that ruthlessly honest and yet compassionate journey of self-discovery.

The fact of being a father has actually helped me bring into focus how little time we have. I’ve cared about environmental problems for a very long time. But when my daughter was born, it brought into focus that it’s her generation that is going to really be dealing with the consequences of what we’re doing today. I know that sounds a bit cliché, but it is absolutely very true. What that actually means is that we are just a couple of decades away before we realise the significant consequences from the actions that we are making today. In the timeline of human history, that’s not very long. It’s a blink.

Marc, CEO and co-founder of Winnow Solutions

I have always been lucky in my career. I have been able to be self-employed and work on what I enjoy, and work with people – the two things that drive me on. And engaging with people… at the end of the day that is what social enterprise is about. You provide a way for the people who you are trying to reach to overcome a barrier. 

Nine years down the line at Bikeworks, my job today is to make sure we stay on mission and vision.... Creativity is what stops the business from going stale. But at the same time, you have to learn to be ruthless enough to get rid of the things that don’t work. We are a real business. We have had to make tough decisions.