Friday Roundup - 3/4/11 Seeking Leaders, Words of Wisdom

Friday Roundup – 3/4/11 Seeking Leaders, Words of Wisdom

DevEx is looking for a few good leaders. So too is the Skoll Foundation as well as PopTech. Meanwhile, this week has me thinking about some practical advice for leaders offered by the very knowledgeable Jonathan Lewis and the far-less knowledgeable Charlie Sheen.

OK, first the details. DevEx this week announced a new initiative to find the Top 40 Development Innovators. The organization is polling its members to find trailblazers among donor agencies/foundations, development-consulting companies, implementing NGOs and advocacy groups. Find out more at DevEx’s new Facebook page and/or its freshly launched Development Innovators Blog.

Also this week, the Skoll Foundation opened the application process for the 2012 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship, which includes support grants and noncash awards to a select group of social entrepreneurs. Potential winners are required to “have a tested and proven social innovation that addresses an issue of critical importance and is positioned for large-scale impact.”

There’s also still time to submit a nomination for the 2011 PopTech Social Innovation Fellows program. Fellows attend a five-day, all-expenses paid training program followed by the annual PopTech conference, where they will have a chance to present in front of the influential audience.

Last month, Jonathan Lewis of Opportunity Collaboration gave a realistic yet very motivational keynote address to the Beyond the Magic Bullet Conference at the Stanford Association for the International Development. A key quote:

“What the poor deserve are not ideological solutions, but rather a dynamic anti-poverty pluralism where the private and public sectors, for-profit companies and nonprofit causes, operate side-by-side — partnering when needed, competing when necessary. Now it is our turn – your turn. We can change the poverty paradigm.”

Lewis presents eight operating principles that are worth your time.

Finally, seeing as it’s Friday, how about a little levity courtesy of OnStartups.com. The site took some recently uttered quotes from the – let’s call him “eccentric” – actor Charlie Sheen and artfully applied them to entrepreneurship.

Sheen: “It (my brain) fires in a way, not particularly from this terrestrial realm.”

OnStartups.com: “As an entrepreneur you need to think at a level that is not from this world. Look back at the legendary Apple ad campaign about ’Think Different.’ The rest of the world happens to be a fickle bunch. On the one hand, they want to vilify you for being an entrepreneur and take you down a level or two. On the other hand, they want something that is outside the box and pleases them. The only people capable of doing that are entrepreneurs.”

It’s both cringe-worthy and noteworthy at the same time.

(Hat tip: Ashoka Changemakers).