The (serial) social entrepreneur journey

Wins, Losses, and Lessons Learned Along the Way

By Tena Pick, C3’s Impact Trainer and Founder of Project Kal

I stumbled upon the world of social impact by pure chance. Once I finished my undergraduate studies, I knew I wanted to move to London, and completing a Masters's Degree in Social Entrepreneurship seemed like a good way to do that and learn something new along the way. 

I spent a good portion of that year being fashionably cynical about the programme and social entrepreneurship at its core, decrying my more enthusiastic colleagues, who I thought had an ego problem for thinking that they could actually change the world. That changed the first time I set foot in the field, during our final project which my team and I conducted in rural Indonesia. Suddenly, the lived reality and experience of people knocked the cynicism right out of me. It forced me to come face to face with my own privilege, the limitations of my knowledge, and the immense scope of work that lies ahead of all of us who have decided to make the impact space our home.

Lesson 1: Assumption is the mother of all f-ups

We were a group of grad students, as confident as you can only be in your twenties. We were sure we were designing a solution so elegant and impactful that the community would be thrilled by it. However, when we presented the solution to the village council, we were met with blank stares. While elegant, it was simply not what the stakeholder needed or wanted. Never assume you know what the stakeholder needs, ask them. In the impact space, we tend to treat the end beneficiary as less than capable of making their own decisions about their own needs, especially when working with marginalised groups. Frame your end beneficiary as a customer, and the way you approach the problem will surely change. This ensures a balanced power relationship and a more structured approach that leads to less wasted time and resources. 

Moving to Dubai after London opened up a new world of opportunities, starting with joining the C3 team a decade ago. I co-founded a social impact consultancy called The Sustainability Platform and worked with C3 entrepreneurs on various social impact concerns, mostly social impact measurement. Working across the region showed a dire need for data and a dire need for better impact measurement protocols for social entrepreneurs. At the same time, being exposed to a broad range of social enterprises and impact approaches, put me on a journey of personal self-discovery, leading me to the field of gender and development, where I am now firmly planted.

Lesson 2: Measure your impact! 

Yes, it’s hard, yes, it’s often boring, and yes, it’s absolutely necessary. If you call yourself an impact-driven entrepreneur, you must know your social impact outcomes. You organisation is never too small and it’s never too early to start measuring your impact. Find a scale and level of rigor that works for you and ensure the whole team takes responsibility for the data collection.

The more time I spent in the impact space, the more I focused specifically on gender. I know that when you are a hammer everything looks like a nail, and when you are a gender expert everything looks like a gender issue, but I promise you, if you apply a gender lens to your business you will both deepen and broaden your impact. During one of my workshops, I had a woman participating with a black eye. Her husband did not want her to attend workshops outside the house and it escalated to physical violence. At the end of two weeks, he came and asked me to stay longer because his wife was now much happier and more productive. That encounter got me thinking about our approach to gender as an issue of “women empowerment” and the ways in which men and boys are left behind in gender programming. Ultimately, this led to the creation of my next social enterprise, Project Kal, and my move to India.

Lesson 3: Don’t get married to your solution, get married to your problem

I am obsessed with how gender influences our lived experience, issues of inequality and fairness, and how gender interacts with other forces that shape our lives. However, how I go about figuring these things out changes with time, based on my stakeholder’s input and my own research and experience. This flexibility in design allows me to target the issue I am passionate about from multiple angles while putting my stakeholder front and center. As social entrepreneurs, we need to be sensitive to changes in context, outside stressors, and trends. Being in love with your solution more than your problem will not serve you in the long run.

Moving to India and starting fresh (again) was a whole new can of worms. The country is immensely complex, diverse, and impossibly large, meaning focus and cultural sensitivity became more important than ever. I am a huge believer in not reinventing the wheel but rather finding unique ways to add value and maximising impact by figuring out what you do best and adding that piece of the puzzle to the larger ecosystem. With that in mind, I spent the first six months getting to know the ecosystem and creating a business model that puts impact at its core.

Lesson 4: Partner, share and co-create

In the impact space, our main goal should be solving the issue we are passionate about. Chances are, we are not the only people working on this particular issue, and so much value can be created through collaboration and sharing what works and what doesn’t. Reach out to organisations with strong presence in the field and community trust, offer to co-create, publish knowledge pieces and share your losses as openly as you share your wins. You will see your community thrive and your impact increase tenfold. 

Project Kal took a massive hit when COVID shut the whole country down, as I have never considered doing anything remotely and online. I thrive on face-to-face connections and the energy I get from the room full of participants. It took me a good while to find my feet and change the model to make it work in this new hybrid world. I am still nowhere near where I would have been had COVID not happened, but it also opened the doors for many more corporate engagements and global clients. Being a social entrepreneur means being stubborn, and that I am. 

Somewhere around the time of the first wave in India, I discovered I was pregnant with my first baby. Becoming a mother of a boy in a volatile, uncertain, and increasingly polarising world set me on a new entrepreneurial path, and I co-founded Parenthesis, a feminist parenting network. I became extremely aware of the impact parenting practices have not just on our children. Still, on the world as a whole, and in this new endeavor, which is both intensely personal and professional, I bring my global practical experience and merge it with my academic research and knowledge in a way that helps create a practical set of tips and tricks for creating a radically equitable world. 

Lesson 5: Draw from your own lived experience

Notice a gap feel a need to close during your own life? Close it. Impact doesn’t always have to be created for situations of crisis or turmoil, it can be created for all strata of society and have an immense trickle-down effect that transforms entire communities. If you need inspiration, look in the mirror.

What next? The more I do, the more I understand where my gaps in knowledge are and work hard on closing them, the more I understand my own strengths and limitations and the more I rely on the power of community. I am excited for the next decade with my C3 family, seeing the social impact space in the Middle East grow and evolve, and building programs that merge global best practices with local cultures and sensibilities, creating cutting-edge research and, of course, helping you measure your social impact.