Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think

by Peter H. Diamandis

There’s a different mentality now because the world is much more globally connected. In the past, things that happened in Africa or China, you didn’t really know about. Today you know about them instantly. Our problems are much more interrelated as well. Everything from climate change to pandemics have roots in different parts of the world, but they affect everybody. In this way, global has become the new local.” When Skoll cashed out of eBay in 1998 for $2 billion, he too took his philanthropy global. He created a foundation to pursue a “vision of a sustainable world of peace and prosperity.” The Skoll Foundation attempts to drive large-scale change by investing in social entrepreneurship. According to Skoll, social entrepreneurs are “change agents,” an idea he explained further in an article for the Huffington Post: Whether the issue is disease and hunger in Africa; or poverty in the Middle East; or lack of education across the developing world—we all know the problems. But social entrepreneurs, I believe, have a genetic deficiency. Somehow, the gene that helps them look past the impossible is missing . . . By nature, entrepreneurs aren’t satisfied until they do change the world, and let nothing get in their way. Charities may give people food. But social entrepreneurs don’t just teach people to grow food—they’re not happy until they’ve taught a farmer how to grow food, make money, pour the profits back into the business, hire ten other people, and in the process, transf...