Every revolutionary thinker had, at some point, the world telling them they were crazy. One of the things I love most about the distributed power of the internet is the power it has to spread brilliant ideas that are just a little before their time, in the process accelerating their momentum. For those interested in this sort of big thinking, the Atlantic Monthly's list of the world's bravest thinkers is a great place to get inspired.
The list is broken into a number of categories, ranging from Culture to Business & Economics, and feature a really diverse array of folks. I was thrilled to see social innovators like Paul Polak sitting next to the creators of South Park.
As you might expect, a lot of these folks fall broadly into the "social entrepreneurship category." Many of them are trying to disrupt business models to provide vital products or services to underserved populations, or are challenging presumptions about talent and supply changes to shift the nature of how things are created.
The most common thread is that each of these thinkers has taken a big risk. They've advocated something fundamentally different from the conventional wisdom. While some of those risks have already clearly paid off - for example, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg introducing the News Feed, at-first deeply unpopular and now most important feature of the site - many others are still an open question. It's important to recognize, though, just how inextricable risk is from change.
Here are some of my favorite people profiled:
Regular readers of this blog will know Paul Polak, founder of International Development Enterprises and D-Rev and author of "Out of Poverty." For decades he has advocated that the best way to treat the poor is as potential consumers and entrepreneurs just as you would treat the rich. His companies sell low-cost products - the infrastructure of entrepreneurship - to people who otherwise might not have access.
People who know me a bit better will recognize my love for Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park. There are two big things that I love about them. First of all, their satire viciously lampoons the culture war that today's young people inherited from our parents. I tend to think that silly battle has stood in the way of serious political shifts for decades, so I'm glad to dance around it's funeral pyre. From a more entrepreneurship and innovation side, the South Park guys have created a very different model (including revenue sharing from advertisements) for delivering content. I like this because it puts content creators - who I care about way more than deliver intermediaries - back in a control seat they haven't had for a very long time.
I love John Fetterman, this mayor of a small town in Pennsylvania that has lost a huge part of it's population. He's trying to rebuild the community around artists and creative types by improving incentives for small businesses, making rent work, and more. I hope like hell it works.
Perhaps more than anyone else on the list though, I think that Shai Agassi represents the pure boldness that social entrepreneurship requires. As the CEO of Better Place, he is trying to create a national grid for electric cars that will fundamentally shift the auto industry. It's going to take a ridiculous amount of logistical coordination, partnership development, and infrastructure building to even have a prayer. But it doesn't compromise on what's really needed. It's not slightly better requirements for auto-manufacturers, it's a fundamentally different paradigm of car-based transportation.
Check out the full list here.
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