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&lt;p&gt;There are entrepreneurs who step up to their first time at bat and hit it out of the ballpark.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I was not one of those people, especially in entrepreneurship. Like many social entrepreneurs, I had a mission and a lot of passion but no clue on what I was getting into.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Early beginnings&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;But I had momentum and an early interest in sustainability. I started my first nonprofit with my mother when I was five years old: A community playground built out of recycled tires in our New Jersey neighborhood.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I credit my mother for teaching me the core tenets of what comprises and sustains a community. I learnt grant writing when I was a mere teenager. Ivy League wasn&#39;t a choice. Instead I was hauled to the Evergreen State College because of its preeminent environmental studies center.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Living the dream: A global citizen&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;I left the U.S. when I was 22 to backpack around the world. Nice Jewish girls from the suburbs of Manhattan didn’t drop out of graduate school to do such things, much less ones with a successful track record in their career of choice.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But I needed to see the world and discover my place in it, knowing that I couldn’t truly understand this by sitting in the safe cushion of academia, learning about other cultures from Xeroxed copies of others&#39; research.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But one year of travel turned into five years. I bartered and exchanged my way around the world. When I came upon companies I liked, I helped them with their marketing and promotions. In return, I was fed and given tips and leads to the next place on my itinerary.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The global ecosystem was alive and I navigated my way by following my intuition and giving back to whatever places and people moved me.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Return to New York—and a 9-to-5 Job&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;Somewhere along the way between Bangkok, Berlin and Bali, I got the idea for a business concept: Giving back and bartering through travel.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By the time I moved back to New York and got into the groove of nine-to-five nonprofit work, I became so bored with complacency that I knew I had caught the entrepreneurial bug.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Even Entrepreneurs Don&#39;t Win in a Recession&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was five years ago that my eco travel startup was born. Oddly, I didn’t end up on the cover of &lt;em&gt;Entrepreneur&lt;/em&gt; magazine, but instead found myself sitting on my couch staring at the news of the recession and our diminishing economy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I had failed to launch. I had isolated myself from the startup community and by not acknowledging where I needed help, I had committed an entrepreneur&#39;s worst mistake.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But failure helps.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Moving on: The Green Breakfast Club&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;This process taught me so much about green entrepreneurship that I decided to dedicate my time and resources to help others navigate the on- and offline world to get the resources needed to launch their ideas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I began teaching free startup classes at the public library and the Foundation Center, and recently formed a new startup, Third Rail Ventures with the mission of seeding and supporting projects for social and ecological change.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The first venture in our portfolio is the Green Breakfast Club, a monthly networking event to grow green startups through barter and resource sharing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our mission is to help, share, create and innovate, and be part of the movement that is transforming business into a vehicle for real change. We are in this together and the Green Breakfast Club is the outcome of what started as a crazy idea.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We have experience, the passion and a vision. How can you help?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;--By Danielle Lanyard&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Danielle Lanyard is a lifelong activist and nonprofit professional. Currently, she a NYC-based serial entrepreneur who helps support and launch startups for social and ecological change.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Related:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt; From Profit to Impact: A B-School Grad&#39;s Path to Social Enterprise&lt;br /&gt; Prospective MBAs Want to Learn Entrepreneurship in B-School&lt;br /&gt; Alternative Careers: Using a Financial Degree Responsibly&lt;/p&gt;

Aman Singh Das

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The Library