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Essay for Social Entrepreneur Scholarship

Question:

What is it about social entrepreneurship that fascinates you? Given adequate

funding, how would you tackle the social, political, or environmental challenges you

feel most passionate about?

Answer:

Why would Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, give almost all his

money to Bill Gates, once the richest man in the world? The simple answer would

be: To eradicate extreme poverty, enhance health services, and improve

educational quality through the Gates Foundation. Why would more than 81

billionaires the world over sign The Giving Pledge Buffett and Gates initiated to

commit half of the signatories money to philantrophy? Another simple answer

would be: To acquire a new status symbol when yachts, private jets, and seaside

mansions, to name a few, are no longer in vogue. Why would the consumer

advocate Ralph Nader write that only billionaires like Gates and Buffett can save the

United States (and presumably later, the world) in his book Only the Super Rich can

Save Us?

The answer for the last question would come in some form of Naderian social

enterpreneurship.

I am very fascinated to read the story of Ralph Nader, who managed to achieve

financial independence relatively early in life advocating consumer rights, as noble

endeavor as it gets in a country such as the United States. He did this not only

through democratic means, influencing the public by writing books and op-ed

pieces, but also by applying what he knows as a trained lawyer, arguing against

corrupt corporations in court. His cases stood on solid enough foundations for the

court to award him enough money sufficient to start him off on a path of financial

independence for the rest of his life. The point here is financial independence, a

vital factor for any sustained, consistent, and principled activism, the kind Nader

showed throughout his life and the kind I would like to pursue for the rest of my life.

To my mind Nader could be considered as the first of the social entrepreneurs, with

the added advantage of initial capital obtained in a principled manner.

In countries with a different legal system such as Indonesia, Naders success does

not seem possible. I am also not trained as a lawyer, so one of the best ways I see

for myself to achieve financial independence to sustain a consistent and principled

activism is through social entrepreneurship. The philantrophic money flowing from

the billionaires could be perfect for social entreprenurship activities, of which the

Hult Challenge is an example. In fact, one of the main reasons Im applying to Hult,

is for the opportunity to participate in the challenge. You could say I think I got

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myself a winning idea, and San Fransisco would be the perfect place to implement

that idea.

The idea is to create an online platform for the people to express and record their

grievances. The platform would utilize the new social network websites such as

facebook, twitter, instagram, and youtube to make it easy for the people toprovide complaints and opinions of the public and private sector spontaneously.

Life in the developing world (and elsewhere) is full of moments where the people

wish they could channel their rage somewhere when encountering corrupt public

sector and private companies. Instead of getting mad, the people should get even

by reporting their encounters through the platform. The intention is to get the

public to be conscious of discrepancies between what the public and private sector

say and what they actually do, what they promise and what they actually fulfill, and

do something about it spontaneously and with ease with the nearest available tool

on their hands: their handphones.

Knowledge is power, and with the knowledge gained from the pool of the peoplewho provide instant feedbacks on the way the public and private sector actually

behave, the power could be transferred back into the people. For example,

politicians who promise better roads may no longer get elected when their unhappy

constituents take pictures of the road, showing it still full of holes years into the

politician term in office. Bureaucrats would think twice of extorting money from

citizens during public service encounters as they may never know whether they are

being recorded or not. Company executives would be motivated to be more honest

with the advertisement of their product as they know that now dissatisfied

customers have a popular avenue to complain of their deficient products.

With the theme of reputational intelligence and deepening the democratic process,the platform would significantly reduce transaction cost of feedbacks or complaints

such as theorized by Ronald Coase, as the people could post short and snappy

text, picture, or video containing their complaints and opinions through their

handphones effortlessly due the simplicity of the platforms operations. In short, the

platform would be a state-of-the-art means of raising the peoples expectation of

the public and private sector by holding both accountable to a high standard, the

kind of standard that the public and private sector should always provide to their

constituents and customers.