My motto is, “Never do anything you don’t want to do.”  Such a belief may sound selfish, cliché, and impossible all at once, but that analysis derives more from our culture’s infatuation with sound bite learning than what I’m actually trying to say.  I suppose the argument for this motto would benefit from an example…

As a Partner in Compass, I do a ton of things I don’t want to do on a daily basis.  Meetings, planning sessions, worrying sessions, networking, and the like take up more of my schedule than I’d care to admit (currently, the timeline on my Google calendar is right in the middle of a six hour red block entitled “Work”).  But rarely do I realize that these day-to-day tasks are in fact exactly what I want to be doing.  Yesterday was one of those times.

Sunday, February 21^st was Compass Partners’ first official venture review day.  Five different ventures – all in different stages of conceptualization and implementation – presented their ideas to the Partner team.  The first was BorrowBike, a year-old venture which has completed a wildly successful pilot program over the last two semesters, and is ready for growth.  Next was a discussion about our partnership with the Georgetown University Social Entrepreneurship Competition.  Together with GUSEC, I foresee a sustainable dedication to encouraging and developing social entrepreneurship on Georgetown’s undergraduate campus.  Third was an idea in conceptualization which would use consolidated fashion news over the Web as a hook to support socially conscious fashion lines as well as the artwork produced by fashion students and independent designers.  I was truly overwhelmed by what Beyond the Surface has planned in the near future; corporate partnerships and their upcoming product line will surely enrich the lives of thousands of impoverished children internationally (it’s actually more like millions, but I don’t want to put too much pressure on Emi just yet).  Finally, a partnership between two Compass Fellows, Re:Action, will fundamentally alter the way people support and judge nonprofits and socially responsible for-profit businesses.

Long story short, the venture review process reminded me that I wouldn’t change a thing about my life and my role in Compass.  The day-to-day strategic planning we engage in is well worth the effort if it supports our ventures in even the slightest way.  To an outsider, our mission to “inspire, enable, and sustain” social entrepreneurship may sound like hollow buzzwords, but I know that mission is truly being accomplished.

~ Michael Durante, Partner