David Bornstein How To Change The World Summary

Chapter eighteen of David Bornstein’s How to Change the World is titled “Six Qualities of a Successful Social Entrepreneur”. As the title implies, Bornstein, based on data he has collected for his book, lists the six qualities he believes are exhibited by successful entrepreneurs. He begins this chapter stating that though many people believe “highly successful entrepreneurs are more confident and persistent than most others” (Bornstein 238). He quickly debunks this idea by explaining that the key difference between successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs is their motivation.
Bornstein then spends the remainder of the chapter explaining the six qualities (stemming from their strong motivation) that successful entrepreneurs showcase that enables them to achieve their goals. The first is
Bornstein’s main argument in this chapter is that motivation is intrinsic for success in social entrepreneurship. A person must be willing to constantly improve their ideas and must be humble enough to step back and let others take credit when needed. The strengths of Bornstein’s ideas are that since he has done so much research in writing his book, there are many examples of each of his points, showing that these points are applicable to the real world. However one major weakness of this chapter is that Bornstein does not provide the young reader with the ways to begin to exhibit his six qualities. Furthermore, Bornstein does not take into account how difficult abiding by his six points might be for some, if it does not come easily to not take credit or to self-correct a mistake. Overall, however, Bornstein is effective in explaining why successful social entrepreneurs are successful and in giving future social entrepreneurs the means by which they can achieve their goals and make their ideas a