Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish: What 'Failure' Really Means

The social sector has a problem with success and failure. We see success in the ability to generate resources or win awards, and failure in the inability to access those same things. Really though, accolades and prize money are simply enablers on the path of true success or failure, which is all about the constantly improving impact you have. This is an important lesson to remember as the Echoing Green fellowship announces its semifinalists.

At the end of his commencement address in 2005, Apple founder Steve Jobs told the graduating class of the mantra that he had tried to live by: 'Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.' It was a quote that came from the last edition of the famous "Whole Earth Catalog," one of the original purveyors of a new type of good in the late 1960s, and was an invocation to never lose the spirit of being just naive enough to think you can change the world.

As the premier award for young social entrepreneurs Echoing Green announces its semifinalists, there are many excited social entrepreneurs feeling both the validation of moving on to the next round and the hunger for the support and resources that the fellowship provides.

But there are many more who are frustrated, wondering what exactly it was that didn't make their organization seem like a good fit. Where they not dynamic enough? Not innovative enough? Did they not tell their story in compelling enough terms? Did they simply not meet the criteria that Echoing Green set forth - and if so, who the hell were these guys judging them anyway?

The little notice that they send out letting you know that, Thanks for Applying But No Round 2 For You, can be a devastating thing. It can bring up feelings of insecurity, frustration. For many young founders, it certainly is a harsh reminder of the endless hunt for resources and the difficulty of simply establishing your life line.

I know, because I got that letter twice while building the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern. The CGE was never a perfect fit for Echoing Green - it didn't neatly fit into any 'cause' category, it was about building the infrastructure and capacity of the movement, and most of all, I had decided that the best model for the program was to be an official part of Northwestern University. That attachment to a larger body is a big no no for what Echoing Green is looking to fund.

Yet my thought in all of this was that a) the value that I was trying to create was directly in line with the broader impact EG was trying to have and b) it was so transparently obvious why, in the case of building educational programs it made sense to build connected institutions. With Northwestern, I was able to offer major brand backing to my programs, have my pick of the litter of teachers and intellectual support, and most of all, offer accredited courses that paid for other programs.

So it was a blow when I was rejected outright twice. But it's been three years since the second rejection. In that time, the Northwestern programs have partnered dozens of student teams with community development organizations in Uganda, India and Argentina for two month collaborations, given over 500 the intensive training that planning and participating in the Global Engagement Summit providers, and helped young projects raise more than $150,000 on GlobalGiving. And most importantly, we build a financial model where we're not reliant on grants from the university but can pay for staff based on earned income. This allowed me and my early partners to transfer away from the program and hire new, better staff who are breathing life into the programs as we speak.

So here's the point: success and failure have literally nothing to do with the success or failure of your Echoing Green application. Nor do they have anything to do with other awards or funding. Success and failure are all about your mission, and how well you deliver upon it.

I look at my time at the Center for Global Engagement as a successful first phase of that institution's life, and hopefully a success in terms of our goal of getting the students we worked with to better understand how they can use their passion for good to build a life of meaning. The grants we got and financial models we established were and are simply enablers towards that end.

So to it is with any mission based organization. In the social sector, staying hungry and foolish means pushing ever forward towards the better world you believe in and harnessing all the resources at your disposal to help bring it into being. Echoing Green is an amazing community and resource on that path, but it's one of many.

For those of you moving on to Round 2, Congrats! For those of you with the short white letter, well..see title above.

(Photo: Back of the last edition of Whole Earth Catalog - shared via Flickr by Anab Jain)