Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity beyond the resources you currently control.

~ Howard Steveson

Start Something That Matters

By Blake Mycoskie

In 2006, Blake Mycoskie traveled to Argentina to take some time off from his fourth startup and explore the culture of another country. What he found was a great need among children’s charities for shoes. Mycoskie knew he had to help, and the idea for TOMS shoes was born. The concept for the company is simple: Sell a pair of shoes today, give a pair of shoes to a child in need tomorrow. Mycoskie shares with readers lessons learned while creating TOMS, how to develop and tell your company’s story, and how to be resourceful without having resources.

"You don't have to have a lot of money, a complicated business plan, or a great deal of experience to start something." ~ Blake Mycoskie

Clay Water Brick

By Jessica Jackley

Jackley, the co-founder of the revolutionary microlending site Kiva, had a singular and urgent ambition: to help alleviate global poverty. While in her twenties, she set off for Africa to finally meet the people she had long dreamed of helping. The insights of those she met changed her understanding. Today she believes that many of the most inspiring entrepreneurs in the world are not focused on high-tech ventures or making a lot of money; instead, they wake up every day and build better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities, regardless of the things they lack or the obstacles they encounter.

Entrepreneurship can be a powerful force for change in the world. Jacklay shares her own story of founding Kiva with little more than a laptop and a dream, and the stories and the lessons she has learned from those across the globe who are doing the most with the least.

"The greatest entrepreneurs succeed not because of what they possess but because of what they are determined to do" ~ Jessica Jackley