Social entrepreneurship

As a fashion icon within the wrestling community, I have a responsibility to remain current on styles and trends (recognize the sarcasm, please). Thanks to this burden, I have been sporting a pair of TOMS Shoes. TOMS were created by social entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie. Not only are the shoes chic, they are extremely comfortable. However, the reason TOMS Shoes have taken the world by storm is because they have created an opportunity to leave a footprint in humanity, pun intended, and have a positive impact on the world by providing a pair of shoes to someone in need for every pair they sell. This is what has drawn me to TOMS.

As a sole-proprietor, I gravitate toward stories of individuals having an impact on the world. I strive to inform my athletes on the importance of being globally connected and using our gifts and abilities to make the world a "better place." I was inspired by Mycoskie's explanation of himself and his company. He called his mission social entrepreneurship. It resonated with me so well because I see myself as a social entrepreneur, too.

The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric covered a trip of Mycoskie's to Ethiopia (see the video here). In an interview he said, "social entrepreneur is a really good description of what I am...you have the entrepreneurial gift and spirit to create something out of nothing...it's still a business, but you do it for other reasons other than just to make a profit. You do it for the social well-being and the betterment of whoever you're focusing on."

I have organized Victory School of Wrestling in a way that I believe I am using my gifts and expertise to have a positive impact on our society. We are a business with overhead costs, etc., but making a profit is far from my number one priority. I'm extremely fortunate and blessed to be able to do what I believe I was created for, but many things have fallen into place that have allowed me to pursue this dream. As a result, I measure my success as a businessman/entrepreneur in lives changed, not financial security. Finances are a crucial ingredient to running a business, but Victory is rich is many other ways aside from money.

Most recently, I was privileged to have to opportunity to speak to over 50 youth athletes in a neighboring community. I spoke to them about making good decisions and accepting the responsibility of positively influencing others. Even if we try not to, we are always influencing people. We have the choice to either positively influence them or negatively influence them. How we view our role as an athlete and individual is exceedingly important because it all needs to be for a greater cause. It needs to be about more than us (see my What is it all for blog).

I regularly thank God for the opportunity to serve him and bring him glory through the sport of wrestling. I am also extremely thankful for individuals like Blake Mycoskie. People like him give me the confidence to continue impacting our future leaders and the next social entrepreneurs.

Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change (from Ashoka.org). My idea is to positively influence the world through the sport of wrestling. I have a few tools in my back pocket to do so--education and experience--but my greatest direction comes from God.

While a business entrepreneur might create entirely new industries, a social entrepreneur comes up with new solutions to social problems and then implements them on a large scale. Victory aims to build up individuals into great men and women so that they can impact others with a cause greater than themselves and actively strive to make the world a better place.