Fellows Friday is a weekly series on the TED Blog that profiles one TED Fellow each week. We have asked the Fellows to answer our question below to share their knowledge and advice with other social entrepreneurs, innovators, and changemakers who are coming up with big ideas that can change the world.
Volunteering at NGOs around the world convinced Peter Haas there had to be a better way to help villages develop. He co-founded the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG) to empower locals to start their own businesses that bring clean water, electricity and sanitation to their communities -- and keep them there.
Sokunthea: There are many aspiring social entrepreneurs out there who are trying to take their passion and ideas to the next level. What is one piece of advice you would give to them based on your own experiences and successes?
Peter: The most important thing is to spend some time actually working with other organizations to understand the day-to-day grind behind running an organization, before you make the plunge. It’s very easy to have an idea and to pursue it for two or three weeks. But when you have to actually take the idea and turn it into a sustainable organization, that’s where I see a lot of people’s dreams fall short.
Getting experience in day-to-day management of an organization, and how to build it and run it, is the most vital thing for the success of any social entrepreneur.
Read the rest of Peter's Fellows Friday post here.
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