Leticia Gasca, founder of Fuck Up Nights, showed us the other side of trying to make it in the social capital markets space: failure. Morgan Simon of Transformative Finance Network, Francesco Piazzesi of Échale a tu Casaraw, and Tony Carr of Halloran Philanthropies shared raw and powerful stories struggling with and sometimes even overcoming struggle. Themes included racial and gender bias, high expectations for success, government as a barrier to action, and technological misjudgments in sizing up entrepreneurial ability and constituent needs.
Food for thought from this session:
- Vulnerability and courage are two sides of the same coin. She who cannot admit failure lacks honesty. Morgan Simon of Transformative Finance Network noted that high expectations for success can create incredible pressure, but that reaching out for help, which requires a difficult willingness to open up, has helped her become a successful social entrepreneur.
- Government can often be an untrustworthy but nonetheless significant stakeholder in the developing world. Francesco Piazzesi of Échale a tu Casaraw shared how challenging it was to come to terms with an immoveable government entity.
- Every opportunity is a failure in disguise, but every failure is also an opportunity in disguise. A technological misjudgment nearly jeopardized a critical project in a village, in Tony Carr’s Halloran Philanthropies story. Maintaining calmness in decision making and continuing to troubleshoot problems is equivalent to catching yourself as you are tripping, getting up, and marching on after you dust yourself off.
By SOCAP13 Volunteer Grace Chang
Photo credit.
