Jeff Berlin, guest blogger on the May workshop
Stories of Love and Pain Combine to Create a Breath of Fresh Air at Young Women's Social Entrepreneurs Event
by @Jeff_Berlin
I was lucky enough to attend the 'Reaching in and Reaching out' event
organized by the Young Women Social Entrepreneurs network at Stanford
University's 'I Don't Know to CEO' conference last week. I was lucky enough also to be the only male in the room.
I don't usually think about my gender, but when it is such a obvious difference from the group even I became a little nervous, cautiously introducing myself to the people next to me, as was the opening exercise at the event. Having been to a number of panel events, ones usually comprised disproportionately of men and/or focused on a type money driven innovation only, I wasn't sure what to expect from this experience. 'Female social entrepreneur' is a title which hasn't received all the respect which it deserves, and I feel gatherings like this show us very clearly and immediately why that respect is so warranted.
The panelists: Niko Everett, Emily Arnold-Fernandez and Sarita Vasa were women with amazing individual stories and whose experiences were unambiguously impressive. What struck me most were not their individual stories, but contrary to other panels I have watched, these women displayed not only the successes of their work, but also allowed us to access and understand the doldrums as well. Their specificity, vulnerability and transparent accounts were the real growth drivers of the session and their willingness to offer up supportive comments to their fellow peers showed how quickly bonds, change and even growth can occur. The feelings expressed at the event were real and the setting felt more like an instant family than a topical event. I felt privileged to be able to experience it along with everyone else in the room.
Examples of their candor were clear for the duration of the event, which lasted approximately an hour and was facilitated brilliantly by (I told her this) Han Pham, one of the board members of the YWSE network. The session was meant to follow a trajectory of themes like 'courage' 'fun' and 'innovation'. What was reported as well were hard struggles which took these women from their incipient idea(l)s to the success they have built over time.
Sarita Vasa described a moment after she had failed to secure funding for a very ambitious cultural center project early in her work. She asked herself "what have I done?"--not in the spirit of retreat, rather meant to develop the small-steps determination needed to move ahead. What are the actions I have taken to this point which are leading up to these larger ambitions I have? A new strategy worked and today she has seen all the success her former self aspired towards.
Niko Everett inspired with telling us a promise she made to herself during her most trying moments. The promise was to "tell the real story" of how difficult her path was in hard times. This honesty set against the backdrop of current success helped connect us to the reality underlying each of the astounding stories of these women's lives. Their humility and realistic portrayal of the work they have done allowed us in to see what really happened, as it opened us to recognize our how own difficulties and barrier can be re-framed as necessary challenges in a long and incredible journey. I will now try harder to express that 'hard' element when discussing the love and passion inherent in a venture. It exists for everybody so why not acknowledge it?
Emily Arnold Fenendez, who was celebrated this week by the Dalai Lama as an 'unsung hero of compassion', allowed that "in reality, we are all faking it a little bit" -reassurance that nobody has magical blueprints for success and that the realization of our internal dreams doesn't come from anything except for the effort determination and especially flexibility we posses and cultivate.
My notes from the afternoon tell me what I was feeling then. "Very inspiring", they read. Somehow, the session managed to strike a deep chord within me. Out of all the dialogs and conversations, panels and discussions I have had about innovation, development and entrepreneurial happenings, none has managed to play as full a spectrum of human intuitions as this did. Empathy, openness, feeling, are sometimes scuttled past in discussions about innovation when maybe it need not be. Maybe technocracy has it's place in creating some of the more linear dynamics of development, but perhaps not all. Perhaps, these women can show us all how to innovate better.
@Jeff_Berlin appreciates all criticisms and comments via
Twitter, where you can find him posting on all things inspirational.
For some reason this means technology right now.
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