Social Entrepreneurs: The Excitement of the Spirit…and of Helping the World!

Last Sunday Evening, I was invited to speak with a group of about 35 young students, members of Compass Partners.

First, let me share the Compass Partners story with you, as it is a very special initiative involving amazing college students, full of dedication, drive, and passion to help the world, especially those who need help.

Compass Partners was initiated a little more than two years ago by Arthur Woods and Neil Shah, at the time students at Georgetown. They came to the campus eager to learn, and also to follow their passion to make a difference in the world. While at Georgetown, they each independently started businesses to benefit particular communities in need: Arthur's supporting local farming families in the Middle Atlantic region and Neil's supporting tea farmers in El Salvador.

They realized that there seems to be a void in college: how to create and sustain social entrepreneurship for students who want to make a difference with their business passions.

Arthur and Neil came up with a plan to recruit like-minded students, eager to make a difference, and help them by analyzing an idea for a start up business and providing subsequent encouragement, teaching, mentoring, and support.

Compass Partners is the result, a community that teaches students how to initiate and run businesses, even while students, by providing skill set instruction and mentoring. The instruction is provided by students themselves in addition to external resources, including socially minded professors and successful CEOs, entrepreneurs, management consultants, business coaches and other experts who have taken a keen interest in helping Compass Partners successfully continue its mission.

Beginning at Georgetown, Compass Partners has spread to American, George Washington, Tufts and Indiana Universities and, in another year, could be present in as many as ten universities.

The dedication of those involved and their success is nothing short of awesome, and the world is taking notice, with recent stories and interviews by the Washington Post, ABC News and Fast Company Magazine.

Want to read a feel good story? Google www.compasspartners.org.

I am taken by these 35 extraordinary students. They came to college for a great education and, once there, they wanted more – how they could use their energy, know how and passion to pursue business ideas that make a positive difference?

I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with these students last week. My take away: they will succeed. Among their advisors are three people who I greatly admire, Alan Webber of Fast Company Magazine, David Allen of Getting Things Done, and Professor Bob Bies, an insightful professor at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business, who has a focus on effective leadership.

We spoke about humility being the foundation of growth, about supporting and caring for one's colleagues, about helping one's boss succeed, about purposeful questioning and active listening with a quiet mind, about taking initiative, contributing ideas, about knowing what success looks like and what each client, one's boss and one's colleagues expect, need and want. They spoke enthusiastically about these and other similar principles and told stories to validate that these are difference makers.

They loved the idea of always being early, the importance of remembering names, and mentioned people who are good at it, and they understand the need to always strive for continuous improvement.

The theme of the work of Compass Partners is to Inspire, Enable and Sustain.

I was privileged to be with these students. Because of the nature of Compass Partners, their members are doers and are givers, and that is the road to success!