Dragged myself out of bed this Sunday morning to speak at the Skoll:Emerge conference in Oxford, along with leading luminaries like Ben Metz, Charmian Love, Rod Schwartz and Cliff Prior. Good turnout from the students from a range of universities, and much good learning, sharing and inspiring took place methinks.

For me, the standout was Caroline Casey, CEO of Kanchi + founder of the O2 Ability Awards, who was a truly fantastic, insightful, self-deprecating and very funny speaker. Pearls of wisdom from Caroline included:

– Too much analysis is paralysis
– Why am I a social entrepreneur? Because I'm finding myself
– You can't control the circumstances, but can control how you respond + react (positively)
– We don't all have to be Bono or Nelson Mandela. All of us have the capacity to make something happen

and her 5 rules for social entrepreneurs:

1) Get used to being a duck (calm on top, paddling furiously underneath)
2) Embrace + love failure (learn by doing)
3) Don't give up (take 'no' as motivation)
4) Friends matter (you can't do it on your own, ever)
5) Be self-aware (and honest, and open)

Good stuff.

Much less inspiring, but a packed and participative hour nonetheless, was my session on starting out as a social entrepreneur. Here are the slides (don't think all the animation works, but you get the gist):