I recently saw a video that I found incredibly inspiring from the99percent.com that outlines the traits of successful social entrepreneurs. What I found most insightful was that the ideas outlined can be generalized and applied to anybody who wants to be successful in any endeavor.

In the video below, Cheryl Dorsey, president of Echoing Green, outlines the attributes that define successful social entrepreneurs. She describes a new behavioral model called SEQ, or “social entrepreneurial intelligence.” On a daily basis, her organization has to find “the right person, with the right idea, who can execute on that idea and potentially change the world.”

In summary, here are the qualities that make people particularly effective as social change agents:

1. Focused with the ability to execute with alacrity: It’s not enough to have an idea. You have to execute and prove that your model works.
2. Solutions-oriented: You must be in the business of solving problems, rather than being in the business of generating ideas. Asset-based thinking vs. deficit-based thinking means not just seeing a problem and its challenges/threats, but seeing the situation as an opportunity.
3. Deep and unshakable obligation to a cause: A foundational belief in what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

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