The Rat Race Short Cut: Social Entrepreneurship

By Eric Ochoa, Chairman of the Board

From traveling across the country talking to young people, I have noticed that the predominant viewpoint of young people is that this financial crisis has hurt us the most.  This makes sense—statistically at least.  Young people have been perpetually at about 20% unemployment throughout this recession and recovery.  However, I would like to offer a different point of view; I believe that this downturn is an opportunity for young people.  It is an opportunity for young people to start their own businesses and work for themselves.  It is an opportunity for young people to look at their career as something more than just a source of those dirty pieces of paper we call money.  It is an opportunity for us to control our own destinies and to give back as we give to ourselves and our families.  It is an opportunity to become social entrepreneurs.

You’re probably thinking: “Social entrepreneur?! Dude, I’m just trying to pay my rent and keep my car right now.”  And I don’t discount the validity of making sure you take care of the essentials, but there are ways to take care of your financial needs while also helping to contribute to society.  The most important thing to remember is that this does not mean that you need to change professions either.  Social entrepreneurship can be integrated into what we already do.

I’ll give you my example of how this has worked for me.  My background is in psychology, marketing, and strategy consulting.  Prior to my interest in social entrepreneurship, I was a strategy consultant working for a small firm in San Francisco where they had me working on Microsoft engagements.  This included Windows 7 before it came out, Windows Mobile, and Microsoft’s $44 billion attempt to buy Yahoo that you may remember hearing about in the news.  I went on to work for another international software firm in Barcelona for a few months before my visa ran out.

When I came back to the States, I ran into an old friend from college (Jamie Borromeo).  We knew each other as casual acquaintances from our time at UC Santa Cruz, but had never really talked much one on one.  When we met up we were marveling over how many of our friends (including the most brilliant and accomplished) were being laid off or couldn’t find work.  We decided on the spot during our first in-depth conversation one-on-one that we were going to start GenerationDrive—our non-profit organization that dedicates itself to helping young people learn how to start and run their own businesses and find other likeminded young people to work with.  I now use my understanding of the human mind and marketing to educate fellow young people on how they can employ themselves and their friends.  I now market opportunity to young people instead of helping a huge corporation get even richer, and I am happier than I have ever been in my life.

The old model of working for some Fortune 500 firm, for some boss that is two to three times your age that doesn’t understand you and pays you half of what you are worth, are over.  We cannot rely on the older generations that created this problem to get us out of it.  It is time for us to look for our answers in the mirror and in our friends.  We understand better than anyone else what is going to be the next phase of business.  We understand technology better than anyone. We understand the green movement better than anyone. We understand how to relate to other cultures in an increasingly global economy better than anyone. And it is time that we realize that we know how to manage ourselves better than anyone.  

It's Time For A Millennial Woodstock. But Ours Looks A Little Different.

By Jamie Borromeo, National President & CEO

Since we were in the womb, we young people have been brainwashed to believe that what we own defines us, from Star Wars action figures to Barbie and Ken’s Malibu Playhouse.  Now that the economy has crashed and we can’t find jobs, we own nothing but college degrees, an IPod and a whole lot of debt. But we’re gonna use them for a different purpose--We’re gonna use them to change the lives of millions of Americans. 

We’re using our intellect, our ability to reason, our passion for music, technology, MTV reality shows and our online social networking to join millions of young people, celebrities and leaders in a movement to LEARN, TO SEEK KNOWLEDGE, TO EMPOWER, & TO ENGAGE IN THE NATIONAL DISCUSSION. That’s because we’re not happy with the current trajectory of our nation. We believe our country was founded on better principles than the status quo. And we’re going to change it.

Like Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity, we’re tired of the craziness and the scare tactics the media, policy-makers and talking heads have used. It’s time for us kids to put the older folks in the corner because we have a whole lot of years working in the trenches ahead of us.  As the most educated generation in the history of our country, we’re going to use our mind and our drive to fight back and win. We want America to understand that we are in this together so we can keep our competitive edge in the global marketplace. We will push forward in a movement to continue to spur the innovation in our country, and teach the next generation of leaders to be responsible with money so we can create wealth for our country, and most importantly,  for our world. 

With all that said, here is the GenerationDrive Pledge. It’s a pledge that we’ll remain engaged to clean up this economy. It’s a pledge that  we’ll help change the way we do business in America. It is a pledge that through remaining engaged in the national discourse, we will make this world a better place to be. We are GenerationDrive. And we are Moving The Next Generation Forward.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. We are so grateful for your support.

Voices from the Millennials: We Are Not the Lost Generation

By Molly Yee, GenerationDrive Volunteer Model

Walking up to the GenerationDrive photoshoot that morning on October 18, the one thought going through my head was, “What the heck am I doing here???” I am not a professional model. Nor am I a passionate activist or generous philanthropist.

 I am an unemployed registered nurse and recent college graduate, 25 years old and babysitting for a living. I voted in the recent presidential election and haven’t given politics much thought since. I am a good person and enjoy hanging out with friends and living in the moment while I wait for my life to start. In short, I am GenerationDrive’s target audience.

 So looking at it that way, I guess I really did belong at that photoshoot. And once I stopped worrying about my lack of modeling experience, I actually had a lot of fun. I’m probably the most awkward person you will ever get in front of a camera, but Jamie and Eric were happy so I just continued to enjoy the best Monday ever- I was fed, watered, had my hair and make-up done and a killer outfit picked out for me, and got to strut around like a movie-star all day.  If that was my fifteen minutes of fame, I’m glad that I got to represent something worthwhile.

 If you had asked me what this worthwhile cause was upon my arrival, I couldn’t have told you.  Thankfully Jamie stepped in and explained WHY we were all gathered at the Academy of Art at 8 am and what the goals of GenerationDrive were. Talking to her was awesome. I heard a level of passion and conviction in her voice that I really haven’t heard from people my age when discussing politics or world affairs. It actually reminded me of my parents when they talk about growing up during the Civil Rights Movement or the experience of being Asian-American in the 1950’s.

 When my parents talk about their twenties, their stories reflect courage and the knowledge that they were part of something bigger than themselves, and although I know I’m lucky to not be faced with the same difficulties, I’m envious of their strength in their convictions and that they helped to shape the world I live in today. While I want to be greater than I am and influence the world around me, I am comfortable with my life; it is difficult for me to see beyond myself to the rest of the world and the connection we share, and even more difficult to begin to fathom that I could possibly affect change.

 This is why GenerationDrive interests me. It seeks to give a louder voice to those of us that weren’t pulled from the womb shouting into a megaphone… Those of us that are wandering, feel average, or are drowning in school loans… the millions of people my age that get lost in the shuffle of our everyday lives. Even more than that, it brings us all together and creates a community within which you CAN network and find other people that share your ideals because a) there are SO many of us and b) the simple defining factor of the community is wanting to be more and create our own tomorrow.

 It’s hard to know where to start when it’s just you. But with GenerationDrive, I realized that it’s never just you. And now there’s a way for us to meet one another.

 The best part though, was that by the end of the day, I didn’t just feel like I was a face for the GenerationDrive campaign- I was part of it. I WAS part of this new generation; one that is not lost but that is coming to greatness, not just because we are called to it in times of trouble but because today, we choose to be more and to actively create the world we wish to live in. We are a new generation J

Through My Lens: Making Our Vision A Reality Through Art & Social Media

By: David Lee, New York City Regional President

It was a usual day at the office on Broadway and 31st when I was calling company after company to seek sponsorship for one of the events which my employer at the time was hosting.  I came across one particular organization which I reached out that was interested in collaborating with my company.  We scheduled a meeting at the New York Metropolitan Museum for a quick information session and that is when I met Jamie Borromeo who told me the great idea which she was developing in recently which we all know today as GenerationDrive, I immediately love the idea and that wanted to be part of the organization’s vision to help young entrepreneurs.  The first meeting initiated into a series of emails and phone calls which led to me deciding if I wanted to be GenerationDrive’s NYC Chapter President.

I agreed to being part of GenerationDrive because I knew the vision which Jamie had was great and the potential of how big this vision could be with the help of the right people it will impact a lot of people who need it and make the world a better place.   Given that GenerationDrive is an national organization, they needed someone to be running the NYC region for conferences and calling companies to participate in our events so I wanted to be that person that they could count on.

When I found out that we were having this board retreat and meeting with all the members of GenerationDrive, I was surprised and excited.  There was a photo shoot for our website and marketing material so I was psyched about that. I wanted to meet with the group personally since the only contact I had with them was through emails and phone conferences.

During our time in San Francisco we finished a lot of the planning for GenerationDrive and still had time to do fun stuff which we got the chance to know each other better.  We are the generation of entrepreneurs who know when to work hard and play hard.  We like express that being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean that you constantly have to be business and corporate like but that you can still have fun while making money and doing what you love.

After the weekend of working in the hotel room with post-it board paper all over the walls and endless powerpoint slides and getting to know one another we were finalizing our trip with the GenerationDrive photoshoot which we were lucky enough to get together an awesome group of people who collaborated together to get our vision on a artistic viewpoint.   I wanted to thank our photographer who was able to shoot several scenes and multiple models all within a day.  The models were great for hanging there with us throughout the day.  The makeup artist, wardrobe stylist, and hair stylist were all wonderful people who understood what it took to make our vision happen and they were on board for this GenerationDrive project.  I am grateful to be part of this group.

Our Photographer, Kevin Hofer, posing the beautiful models

Live on the Set