China Fellowship - Ventures Frequently Asked Questions
The spirit of the Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN) is to move an emerging generation of leaders “from success to significance” and “from thought to action”. We hope to activate a global cadre of highly entrepreneurial, creative leaders to step “out of their box” and to act to address the foremost challenges of our times – wherever these challenges may lie and however big they may be. The Leadership Venture component of each Fellowship program is core to its success. Over the years, we have heard many questions about the ventures. Here are a few – with our answers. Of course, if you have more, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Does my venture idea have to be original?
Not necessarily. In fact, we encourage you to learn about successful models, if and where they exist, including models already launched within the Aspen Global Leadership Network and not necessarily in your community or country. That said, we believe that Fellows are uniquely gifted, creative individuals who have the potential to come up with breakthrough ideas by virtue of their entrepreneurial and innovation-driven natures.Must I create my venture myself or can I leverage other successful venture?
Leveraging others is fine. The key is that you add a new dimension to what is already happening. Two South African Fellows are busy replicating Teach for America in South Africa. Others have replicated the Henry Crown Fellowship program itself…which is why we can now speak of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. In fact, we encourage you to look at the venture summaries listed in the AGLN Fellow Exchange for ideas as you develop your initial venture concepts and plans.Can my venture be for-profit?
Yes. It can be for-profit or nonprofit. We don’t have a preference as to legal status. The key is that it have an explicit and positive social impact.What kind of impact meets the criteria of the program? How far should the reach be?
Your nominator and our backers believe, as do we, that you have the capacity to bring significant new ideas and energy to societal challenges that often seem to be hopelessly deadlocked. We have no specific target level of impact in mind but we do hope for a real and significant “return” to the world for this investment. We chose you because we believe in your ability to do great things.What do you mean when you say the venture should be "a stretch"?
The challenges we face in our organizations, communities and countries are real and growing. They cannot be addressed by a “business as usual” approach. Stretching means tackling a new problem, exposing yourself to a community you wouldn’t ordinarily engage with or taking on additional responsibilities that, but for the Fellowship, you wouldn’t otherwise. We know you are busy, and we know you are already engaged. We want you to stretch for two reasons: the world needs you to; and we believe you will surprise yourself by how much more you can actually do if you think about how best to leverage your time and talents.What if my job is already a social/community program/venture?
Many Fellows are already “social entrepreneurs”, NGO leaders, government leaders. We know that. In these cases, we want to challenge you to think about how you might step back and see with a fresh perspective how you might augment your leadership in the area you are concerned about. Are there other approaches you have wanted to try? An experiment you’d like to test? Use this as an opportunity to creatively engage in a different approach to the challenge you are addressing, or as an opportunity to do something that you would not have started or done, but for the fact you are in this Fellowship. Jacqueline Novogratz of Acumen Fund created an “Acumen Fellows” program loosely modeled on the Henry Crown Fellowship Program. Bill Bynum of the Enterprise Corporation of the Delta created the HOPE Credit Union. Deema Bibi in Jordan added a new component of mentorship and values based dialogue to her work with Injaz.Given the number of venture already created within the Aspen Global Leadership Network, are there any common traits among those that have proven successful?
Yes, a few. First and foremost is the correlation between the Fellows’ passion for the venture and its success. If you aren’t thrilled about what you are doing, odds are it will not succeed.Other common traits of successful ventures:
- They were able to overcome uncertainty.In other words, they got started. Fellows were able to commit to a specific initiative and overcome their fears. They moved from a cautious “someone should” to an “I will” even in spite of their uncertainty.
- They were grounded in reality.They did their homework. They developed a deep understanding of the challenge they were facing and a genuine empathy for those they were trying to help.
- They were thoughtful in their design.They invested time and energy in understanding how to design their work in a way that would be more likely to succeed where others have failed.
- The stakes were personally meaningful for them.They felt a deep level of personal commitment to their project- so deep that walking away was simply not an option. We saw this in three primary areas: 1.) Relationships. Fellows who had close personal relationships with people affected by illness, disease or special needs of some sort. 2.)Capital. Fellows who felt so strongly that they committed significant capital to launch their project. 3)Reputation. Fellows who put their reputations on the line by launching projects with a high degree of visibility.
- They aligned their passion, purpose and resources.They identified a clear personal passion and a deeper sense of purpose about why their undertaking mattered. And equally important, they were able to align the resources they had or had access to (skills, relationships, capital, company resources) to focus on the challenge or opportunity they saw.
- They created leverage for themselves.They realized they could not do it alone. They found a partner, built a team or leveraged a business or professional platform to give scale to their limited time and resources.
- They were resilient.They adjusted their plans, rethought their strategy, were persistent in looking for the needed resources, and were patient as the pieces came together.
