Many of my favorite bloggers are talking right now about bold risk-taking and entrepreneurship. This is an especially exciting topic for me because I’m at the very beginning of building my new business. Yesterday I commented on a post by Sonia Simone about how we need to be true to who we are and not be afraid to break rules. The comment thread grew as I made my way to Santa Barbara to attend an Eleos Foundation event called “Who Are The Social Entrepreneurs?” As I listened to the speakers, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between the kinds of people who are leading the way in social entrepreneurship and the leading minds in social media.

Dr. Al Hammond of Ashoka began with the statement, “Social Entrepreneurs are motivated by a sense of passion – they want to fix things. They have a vision for how things could be different and they’re foolhardy enough to embark on that vision.” Each time I read or hear about another social business, I’m struck by the “well, duh!” moment that always seems to come. The answers to these pressing problems were always staring us in the face. The problem is, we’re stuck in ruts and blindly obey the old rules.

Here are a few examples of what Dr. Al Hammond is describing:

Dr. Muhammad Yunus (The Grameen Bank)
Problem: The poor were in hock to a moneylender who ripped them off so they could never get ahead.
The Rules Said: You can’t get a loan without collateral. You have to have money to borrow money.
The Rule-Breaker’s Answer: No. The people who actually NEED money are the poor, not the rich. The poor will value the opportunity more than the rich and be more likely to pay it back than someone who takes money for granted.
The Result: The Grameen Bank was born. After over 30 years and millions of loans, the average repayment rate is around 97%.

Danone Yogurt
Problem: Kids in Bangladesh were suffering from malnutrition.
The Rules Said: Send in donations of food or vitamins.
The Rule-Breaker’s Answer: That will be expensive and unsustainable. Let’s start a business instead of a charity. Let’s sell fortified yogurt to the people at a price they can afford. Then we’ll build small versions of our yogurt factories near their villages and hire the locals.
The Result: Grameen Danone – a thriving, sustainable social business.

Adidas & the 1-Euro Shoe
Problem: A lot of people in poor countries don’t have shoes. A perfectly healthy person can step on a bone and die of tetanus.
The Rules Said: Get donations to buy shoes or get people to donate their old shoes to these poor soles. (I couldn’t resist.)
The Rule-Breaker’s Answer: Let’s see if we can make a decent shoe at a price the poor can afford. Then we’ll sell the shoes to the people and create economic opportunity for ourselves and the shoeless folks.
The Result: People’s feet have shoes. When those shoes wear out, there will be a place to buy another pair at a price they can afford.

Social Media
Problem: You have a good message  to get out, but people are getting better at blocking out ads, mailers and e-mail blasts. The news media is changing so fast, it’s hard to get good coverage.
The Rules Said: Buy a bigger list. Be a little louder. Make your ads a little more clever. Work harder to get through to those overworked reporters.
The Rule-Breaker’s Answer: Take your message directly to the people. Self-publish content like blog posts, videos and podcasts that your community of customers, donors or volunteers will find interesting and thus keep them engaged with your organization and each other.
The Result: The power over information is increasingly in the hands of consumers. Your company will be judged not by the color of your banner ad, but by the content of your pages.

We’re out for ourselves and others at the same time.

Saving lives and spurring economic growth for the poor might seem a lot more noble than changing a communications strategy. But the people leading the way in these endeavors are, as Dr. Hammond described, “motivated by a sense of passion.” They have a vision for how to fix things, do things differently. Social entrepreneurs and social media enthusiasts have one very important thing in common: “social.” We have a passion for people and have a heightened awareness of our place in the grand scheme of things, the on- and off-line social networks we all live in. We’re business people and yes, (gulp) marketers. But we’re ripping up the rule books and destroying the old perceptions of what those words mean in the public lexicon. We’re not just out for ourselves, but yet we are. We realize our interdependence on the social networks of this planet.

What big problems are staring you in the face?
What does the rule-book say about your problem?
What obvious answer might also be staring you in the face?
(WARNING: The answer will seem ridiculous and impossible until you choose to believe it’s not.)