Impact: Business as a calling

"Success is not measured in the amount of dollars you make, but the amount of lives you impact.” – Anonymous

What led you to the career that you find yourself in? How have you measured your success?

Many people choose the career they pursue not for the money they can make but for the impact they can have. That kind of motivation for one’s vocational choice is to be applauded. When we think about what kinds of professions impact the most lives, business rarely finds itself at the top of the average person’s list. Most people view traditional helping professions such as doctor, teacher, pastor, social worker as the best way to contribute to the well-being of others – and if you’re called to one of those vocations, it certainly is. But what if you’re called to entrepreneurship and business, or to one of the many professions and careers that finds themselves expressed through business?

It’s hard to overstate the impact potential of a good business. There’s the obvious economic impact on employees and the communities they’re a part of. More than one person has said that the best poverty alleviation strategy is a good job. And beyond strictly economic impact, there’s also the potential of business to address social problems through market-based solutions – what is referred to as social enterprise. Additionally, business has the potential to create the kinds of spaces where hearts and minds are transformed as they encounter life-giving concepts and environments. Truly, lots of impact potential.

At the Agathe Center for Entrepreneurship, we’re very much about helping those who are called to business succeed in having impact. That means enterprises that are financially sustainability, that have a positive social impact, and create space for people transformation.                                                                                    

Society will always be blessed with those called to the  traditional  helping professions. They are needed. We’d  argue that those called  to business are just as needed and  in careers with an almost  unlimited potential to do good  in the world.

How to measure their success? – the many lives impacted by the good businesses they create. And we’re privileged to contribute.

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