Social Entrepreneurs Changing the World 

Today, on the 21st August we celebrate World Entrepreneurs’ Day, and this year Made By Dyslexia is marking it by releasing two special episodes of our podcast, Lessons in Dyslexic Thinking, with two truly fascinating entrepreneurs who have created iconic global brands.

Simon Griffiths is co-founder of Who Gives A Crap, the purpose-driven toilet paper brand on a mission to help solve the global sanitation crisis, and Anya Hindmarch has built her eponymous fashion brand into a globally recognised name. Their businesses are very different, but they have two important things in common. They are both dyslexic, and both have a strong sense of purpose at the heart of what they do.

I’m dyslexic too. I’m the founder of Made By Dyslexia, a global charity transforming perceptions of dyslexia around the world. Last year we released a report with Virgin StartUp highlighting that one in three founders are dyslexic. Virgin, Apple, Soho House, Shazam, IKEA and Ford are just a few of the groundbreaking businesses created by Dyslexic Thinkers. There’s a reason for that. The skills that make great entrepreneurs – imagining what doesn’t yet exist, seeing opportunities where others see obstacles, questioning the status quo, solving problems differently and bringing people with you – are also Dyslexic Thinking skills. And those same skills can be incredibly powerful when applied to social change.

Richard Branson, a fellow Dyslexic Thinker once described me as a social entrepreneur. I hadn’t really thought of myself that way, but whether you are building a business or a movement, entrepreneurship is about seeing what could be different – and having the determination to make it happen.

Different thinkers make natural disruptors
There are five Dyslexic Thinking skills that are particularly powerful for entrepreneurs. We are imaginers, good at picturing what could be rather than simply accepting what is. That helps us spot gaps and see problems as opportunities. We are big-picture thinkers, naturally stepping back, connecting the dots and cutting through complexity – hugely valuable when developing a product, proposition or message. We embrace failure. Dyslexics love finding workarounds, so when something doesn’t work, we tend to bounce back, pivot and try another way. We question. “Why?” and “Why not?” are two of our favourite questions. In business, that can mean disrupting an industry to create something better. In social entrepreneurship, it can mean setting out to right a wrong. And we are people people. Communication, empathy, and collaboration help us understand what people need, build brilliant teams and bring others with us. These aren’t just business-building skills. They are change-making skills.

Put Purpose at the heart of the business
Nick Jones, the dyslexic founder of Soho House, once gave me a brilliantly simple piece of entrepreneurial advice: get your Ps in the right order. He says:
First comes Passion. Then People: surround yourself with a brilliant team. Then Product: create something you are proud of and people want. Get those right, Nick says, and Profit follows.
For social entrepreneurs, I think there is another vital P: Purpose. What is the problem you want to solve? What is the wrong you want to right? Purpose doesn’t have to be something a successful business discovers later and bolts on. It can be embedded from the beginning. That came through powerfully in my conversation with Simon Griffiths. Who Gives A Crap has built a hugely successful global business selling toilet paper, but the bigger idea is far more ambitious: helping to tackle the global sanitation crisis. Their Big Hairy Audacious Goal, their BHAG, is for everyone in the world to have access to clean water and a toilet by 2050. Simon describes that ambition as a North Star, giving employees, customers and supporters something bigger to be part of. He also rejects the idea that financial success and social impact have to be a trade-off. Who Gives A Crap has donated 50% of company’s profits – over $13 million USD so far – to global sanitation projects. Simon’s ambition is to prove that a company can generate financial returns while creating social impact at scale – and encourage more entrepreneurs and investors to do the same. Purpose and profit don’t have to compete. Done well, purpose can help drive growth.

Why I built a movement, not just an organisation
At Made By Dyslexia, we have our own BHAG: by 2030, we want Dyslexic Thinking understood and empowered in every home, school and workplace. I founded the charity because my own lived experience showed me how deeply the traditional system misunderstands dyslexic minds, leaving brilliant potential untapped. But changing global perceptions is a monumental task to take on alone. We are a relatively small organisation with an enormous ambition, so I learned early that we could never create that scale of change by trying to do everything ourselves. Instead, we built a movement.

We tell simple, powerful stories, build strategic partnerships with organisations capable of creating change at scale, and create resources anyone can access for free. That approach has enabled us to work with organisations including LinkedIn, Microsoft, Randstad, Virgin, and our behavioural-change campaigns have won six Cannes Lions Awards. One of the most important things I’ve learned as a social entrepreneur is that you don’t need a huge team to achieve your goal. You need a simple but bold story and great partners to help you tell it. Find people and organisations who share your purpose. Give them a compelling reason to join you. Make your ambition simple enough to understand and big enough to inspire. That is how an organisation can become a movement. And movements drive change.

There has never been a better time to have a go
Anya Hindmarch made another point during our conversation that I think is particularly important for the next generation: there has never been an easier time to start. Technology and social media have transformed the barriers to entry. You can start from your bedroom. You don’t necessarily need premises or a large team. You can put an idea into the world, find an audience, see what people think and adapt incredibly quickly. And, as Anya puts it, you can “fail quietly”. I love that idea. Failure is one of the most valuable parts of entrepreneurship. Being able to experiment, learn and try again without betting everything on your first attempt is incredibly liberating.

AI is reducing those barriers even further. Individuals and tiny teams increasingly have capabilities that once required entire departments. As technology takes care of more technical and routine tasks, Human Skills become even more valuable: imagination, curiosity, empathy, judgement, communication, problem-solving and leadership. Those also happen to be Dyslexic Thinking skills. So this is one of the most exciting times in history to become a social entrepreneur. And there is a generation ready to do it. Research from Virgin Money found that 83% of UK children aged nine to 11 aspire to start their own business one day. Meanwhile, Gallup found that 79% of Gen Z want work focused on helping others or making a positive difference. Put those ambitions together and something interesting happens. We have a generation that wants to create, but also wants what they create to mean something.

Today we should encourage young people to think about entrepreneurship differently: not just what business they might build, but what they care enough about to change. What frustrates them? What could work better?  What unacceptable problem can you solve? Somewhere in the answer will be an extraordinary business, social enterprise, campaign or even a global movement. Technology has dramatically lowered the barriers to getting started, AI is putting extraordinary capabilities into the hands of individuals, and young people have an appetite both to create and to make a difference. That is a powerful combination. Whether you’re building a business or changing the world, entrepreneurship starts with seeing what could be different – and making it happen.