The Power of Unreasonable People
Group 5
Book Summary
The Power of Unreasonable People is a book that discusses social entrepreneurship through examples of past experiences of social entrepreneurs. To become a social entrepreneur it is important for one to be unreasonable. If an “unreasonable” person wants to begin a social business then they would be wise to follow these three building blocks: build innovative enterprises, create markets of the future, and lead sustainable and scalable change.
Creating a successful business model is the first and most important aspect in creating a business. You must decide whether you are aiming for a leveraged nonprofit, hybrid nonprofit or a social business venture. As an organization grows then so does the need for funding. There are many levels of funding but the most common are: foundations, sales and fees, fundraising, and fishing in back pockets. The most economical type of business is the social business, which is funded through sales and charging fees. How a business receives its support depends on which type of business it is, leveraged nonprofit, hybrid nonprofit or social business.
Creating a market of the future is extremely important in creating your business; you just have to figure out what opportunity would be the best venture. There are many opportunities such as financial, environmental, demographic, nutritional, etc. However, if you are creating a profit business then you should research those opportunities to figure out which will be the most profitable for you and others. Once you have found the problem you are going to address, then you have to market your product or service at the right price. In order to market at the right price means making your quality product financially affordable for the not so fortunate.
To accommodate the needs of the less fortunate one has to try and change the world today in order to make it better for the future. One way to do this is through accountability toward others, however if one takes the examples from the past and present, then they can hopefully make a better future for others. In learning from the past, mistakes can offer new solutions, help with new problems, teach others to join forces, and change the system to better aid the less fortunate.
The term “unreasonable people” means that those who are willing to make a difference in the world will do what ever it takes ethically to help the cause that they are fighting for. The cause is their social business idea which helps them and those in need. So now let us all be unreasonable social entrepreneurs and change the world we live in for the greater good.
