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Top2. Enlightened Self-Interest: Driving Force Of Social Entrepreneurship
The latest restatement of social enterprise will lead to faster rates of deep social impact, and in the ways, brilliant people can make structured contributions to social and economic change. Enlightened self-interests includes narrow self-interest focuses on individual possessions but includes interests that are shared, in which one has only partial ownership which focuses on relationships, community, and social values and interests that are purely unselfish.
All three; self-interests, shared-interests and altruistic-interests - contribute to one's wellbeing and quality of life. Each contributes to a more enlightened sense of the quality of life; which explicitly recognizes that each individual is a part of the whole of society, which in turn must conform to some higher order of things.
The Dalai Lama said that “If you think in a deeper way that you are going to be selfish, then be wisely selfish, not narrow-mindedly selfish. From that viewpoint, the key thing is the sense of universal responsibility, that is, the real source of strength, the real source of happiness. If we have a genuine sense of universal responsibility as the central motivation and principle, then from that direction our relations with the environment will be well balanced. Similarly with every aspect of relationships: our relations with our neighbors, our family, and country neighbors, will be balanced from that direction”.
This enlightened self-interest is a product of balance among narrow self-interests, community or shared-interests, and altruistic or other interests. Enlightened self-interest means that we cannot simply maximize or minimize any one particular aspect or dimension of our lives. We cannot be driven merely by greed, altruism, or concern for community. Instead, we must pay conscious attention to whether we are adequately meeting our needs as individuals, as members of some larger community or society, and as moral, ethically responsible humans. Quality of life is a consequence of harmony or balance among the three.
Ashoka founder Bill Drayton keenly observes that social enterprise is not a standalone discipline anymore. These incredibly talented students have opportunities to join jobs at places like Google or Bain. Despite this pressure, talented young people are making strategic, robust social and economic change a part of their DNA — not a trivial side activity to pad resumes.