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Saturday, November 3, 2012

Ten Point Plan For Social Entrepreneurs to Change the World

Devin Thorpe
Devin Thorpe, Forbes Contributor
Using social entrepreneurship or impact investing to leave your mark.

Here it is:
  1.  Save every penny.  Social entrepreneurs as a general rule can make a bigger difference with less money than entrepreneurs without a social mission.  Scrimp, save and devote your own resources to your cause.  Whether your venture is for profit or not, start with putting your own money to work with you.
  2. Keep your day job.  One of the key lessons I learned while writing Your Mark On The World was how much impact one person can have if the money she raises for her venture doesn’t have to go to paying her living expenses.  Steven Dee Wrigley, about whom I posted a few weeks ago, is a great example.  He’s a social entrepreneur who works nights to fund his day-time charitable work.  You won’t keep that job forever, but keep your job as long as possible; let your current employer help fund your new gig.
  3. It won’t be easy.  If you are going to change the world, it won’t be easy.  Get that notion out of your head right now.  The idea may be simple, but that is only likely if the problem is huge and others have deemed it impossible.  For instance, it makes no logical sense that 1 billion people in the world are hungry when there is ample food available.  Solving that problem is proving not to be as easy as it would seem.  I’m confident that you won’t quit just because changing the world is hard.
  4. Start Something That Matters.  Blake Mycoskie, founder of Toms, the shoe company that gives away a pair of shoes for every pair someone buys, wrote an inspiring book that gets at the heart of social entrepreneurship.  His book’s title is the message:  Start Something That Matters.  It may be harder to find something that matters and much harder to figure out how to pull it off, but if it doesn’t matter, it isn’t worth your time.
    Blake Mycoskie at SXSW 2011
    Blake Mycoskie at SXSW 2011 (Photo credit: eschipul)
  5. Focus on social issues.  There is money to be made, if that’s what you’d like to do, even when tackling big social problems.  The Tom’s model of social entrepreneurship has created a movement around the concept of “one for one.”  Countless businesses now offer products and services for sale on that basis.  Worldhaus is a for-profit venture that is creating homes for the market  of a billion or so people who don’t have a safe place to live but who can afford a $2,000 or $3,000 home.
  6. Make it great.  All the marketing hype in the world can’t make something that doesn’t matter, that isn’t great or that doesn’t change the world into something that lasts.  Your impact will be tied to your ability to create something that grows beyond you, that exceeds your involvement and creates change.  Focus on your product or service.  You can only hope to change the world by bringing a zealot’s passion to your deliverable.  Anything short of that is likely to leave your audience underwhelmed.
  7. Build a team.  If you can’t assemble a team of followers who will throw their lot on with you—not people you’re paying (at least not well) but people who are investing their time and energy along with you, you’ve either failed to create a compelling idea or you’re not a compelling leader.  A great team is early evidence of a great product or service and a great leader.
  8. Use crowdfunding.  After you’ve exhausted your own ability to fund your venture, use crowdfunding to raise the money you need for your projects.  With each effort at crowdfunding, you can build an audience of followers and fans who will support each new project.  Don’t think of crowdfunding as something you do once and then forget it.  You can find a list of crowdfunding resources here (be sure to see the comments for more ideas).  In 2013 you will even be allowed to raise equity for your for-profit ventures using crowdfunding.
  9. Have an impact.  With a team, a passion, and a product greased with funding, you are ready to actually have an impact, to make a difference.  Focus on action that leads to results. The more you actually achieve with your resources, the more likely they are to compound.  Whether you have a high impact, for-profit social venture or a nonprofit , focus on the difference you make.  By measure and reporting on your impact, new customers and supporters will come out of the woodwork to make your social enterprise grow.
  10. Change the world.  Once you demonstrate your impact, you can grow your enterprise to have world-changing scale.  You won’t measure your results in profits, even if you make them.  That’s not what you’re about.  You’ll measure your impact in the ways you’ve made the world a better place.  Changing the world is its own reward.  Making a living at it is a bonus.
This ten point plan won’t appeal to as many people as the last one.  I recognize that some people were disappointed to read my last list when they recognized that it was meant to be funny and was not meant to be real advice.  (I just hope no one bought an Italian sports car before they figured out I’d meant that as a joke!)  If you’re still reading, I’m hopeful that you’ll join the community of people focused on leaving a mark on the world.

One final note: I don’t ever remember a time either in my life or in history when the world’s wealthiest were more committed to philanthropy and solving social problems than they are now.  The Forbes 400 Issue this year was devoted to the social good the Forbes 400 are doing.  More power to them.


I’m launching into more research about crowdfunding to write a book about best practices for social entrepreneurs.  If you have a connection to crowdfunding, please click here to share your wisdom.  I’m sure my research will also lead to more posts on that topic here on Forbes.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below, at my site, yourmarkontheworld.com, on Facebook, or @devindthorpe.

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Thursday, November 1, 2012

Malaysia is a Secular state or an Islamic country?

There are some law issues being argued of late, among them like Secular state and Islamic country, etc. Shad Saleem Faruqi Professor of Law at UiTM clarified that:

Secular state:

De facto law minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz crossed swords with DAP’s Lim Kit Siang over the latter’s claim that Malaysia is a secular state.

The law minister correctly pointed out that nowhere in the Constitution is there any mention of the word “secular”.

Further, as Islam is recognised in the Constitution as the religion of the federation, it would be improper to regard the country as a secular state.

In support of this view, one can point out that the word “Islam” is mentioned at least 24 times in the Constitution, the words Mufti, Kadi Besar and Kadi at least once each. In Schedule 9, List II, paragraph 1, state legislatures are permitted to apply Islamic law to Muslims in a variety of civil areas.

The state legislatures are also permitted to create and punish offences by Muslims against the precepts of Islam except in relation to matters within federal jurisdiction.

Syariah courts may be established. Under Article 121(1A), syariah courts are independent of the civil courts.

On the other side, Lim correctly pointed out that Malayan constitutional documents and pronouncements by early leaders indicate that at its birth the federation was meant to be a secular state.

To back this view, one can point to the Supreme Court decision in Che Omar Che Soh’s case that although Islam is the religion of the federation, it is not the basic law of the land.

Article 3 on Islam imposes no limits on the power of parliament to legislate contrary to the syariah. Islamic law is not the general law of the land either at the federal or state levels.

It applies only to Muslims and that too in limited and specified areas. It is noteworthy that non-Muslims are not subject to syariah or to the jurisdiction of the syariah courts.

Islamic country:

Ever since Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s declaration on Sept 29, 2001 that Malaysia is an Islamic country, this debate ignites periodically and no firm conclusion is ever possible because of the problem of semantics – the assignment of different meanings to the words “secular” and “theocratic” by participants in the discourse.

My personal view is that if by a theocratic state is meant that the law of God is the supreme law of the land and that the temporal ruler is subject to the final direction of the theological head, then clearly Malaysia is not a theocratic state due to the presence of a supreme Constitution and the overriding power of secular authorities over the religious establishment.

At the same time if by a secular state is meant that law and religion are separated from each other; that there is no legally prescribed official religion; that religion is not interwoven into the affairs of the state; that no state aid is given to any religious creed; and that religion is left entirely to private establishments, then Malaysia is certainly not a secular state.

Then how should we be described? It is submitted that the Malaysian legal system is neither fully secular nor fully theocratic. It is hybrid. It permits legal pluralism.

It avoids the extremes of American style secularism or Saudi or Taliban type of religious control over all aspects of life. It walks the middle path. It promotes piety but does not insist on ideological purity.

Muslims are governed by divinely ordained laws in some fields but in others their life is regulated by Malay adat and by secular provisions enacted by elected legislatures. Non-Muslims are entirely regulated by secular laws.

In sum, the secular versus theocracy debate is full of semantics and polemics and will take us nowhere.

Reflecting On The Law By Shad Saleem Faruqi
> Shad Saleem Faruqi is Emeritus Professor of Law at UiTM.

Related post:
Malaysia a transit point for terrorists or a terrorist recruitment centre?   

Malaysia a transit point for terrorists or a terrorist recruitment centre?

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is a transit point for terrorists, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

However, he stressed that the country is not a recruitment ground or a target for international terrorists groups.

“I want to assure Malaysians that the country is not a target at the moment,” Hishammuddin said after chairing a crime prevention meeting in Parliament yesterday.

He also dismissed fears that the country had become a recruitment ground for terrorists.

“I can confirm that this is not the case,” he said, adding that the two Malaysians detained in Beirut for alleged links to al-Qeada were not part of a terrorist cell here.

“The threat of global terrorism is a real threat and is not unique and limited to Malaysia and the arrest of the Malaysians clearly shows this,” he added.

Malaysians Muhamad Razin Sharhan Mustafa Kamal, 21, and Razif Mohd Ariff, 30, are being charged in a military court for allegedly being involved in terrorist activities.

Meanwhile, the Higher Education Ministry acknowledged that students are vulnerable to being recruited by terrorists.

“In this age of openness and visibility of information, students are also exposed to all this,” said Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

“I hope our students are mature and are not be swayed by these things,” he said after the launch of the Ready4Work online portal.

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said the arrests of Muhamad Razin and Razif would not change the good perception tourists have of Malaysia.

“The world knows Malaysia is not a centre of terrorism. There has never been a single terrorist incident in our country,” said Dr Ng after opening an anti-crime against women seminar in Raub yesterday.

However, she said all Malaysians should not let their guard down and continue to remain vigilant.

 - The Star/Asia News Network

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