Wabwire W'a Waheirire
Dear friends,
As a social entrepreneur, one of my biggest challenge in this initial start-up stages has been building a team of voluntary individuals who are ready and determined to take the risk of running an institution from scratch, with barely any resources or even funds to accomplish some of the day-to-day activities set out in the plan. I have always succeeded in marketing the idea and having them agree to be part of its trials and tribulations which in the end also turns out to be futile.
Along the way, I’ve observed that most millennial folks (even non-millennials) have a poor culture. They never want to take risks and if they actually try, then they are too demanding and harbour unreasonable expectations. Expectations of thinking that a good idea must hastily bring monetary returns or quick fame. Expectations to think that out of the blue, they will be famous.
Ours isn’t a culture of patiently attaching oneself to a startup social cause, a noble cause which may not necessarily be about financial satisfaction but the inner satisfaction that someone somewhere is being impacted and that because of your efforts they’ve got their life’s priorities changed. A culture of belief that someday, no matter the challenges, things will not be the same.
As founders, all we ever want is a team of individuals who will understand where we are, what we stand for and how we intend to be relevant towards our objectives. From what I’ve observed, this is lacking. Most people still want to be paid for even rendering their services to do a cancer patient’s fundraising.
But this is what I think our millennial folks should take up. The skill, resilience and grit to sacrifice for a worthy innovative cause. To start something from scratch collectively and take the challenges that accrue as short-term. If the problem is money, fame– then devise ways of getting it whilst doing something that’s socially enriching. The wealthiest people like Marck Zuckerberg of Facebook, Bill Gates et.al all started from somewhere.
Ironically, when things go the right way. They are the first people to come running asking for “opportunities”. Opportunities they deliberately ditched in haste for quick financial gains.
ENDS.
Yours truly,
Wabwire
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