We’ve all heard the analogy of “teaching a man to fish” advocating for a sustainable   impact instead of simply placing a band aid on a major issue that we encounter. Here’s an extension of the analogy to dive a bit into our perspective on entrepreneurship.

Let’s consider a world with abundant social value as a world of plentiful fish. This would mean a world without poverty and a world with peace and prosperity. Clearly, this is not the state of our world right now. In fact many parts of the globe, as we all know, experience a significant shortage of such fish.

Social entrepreneurs are some of the best fishermen out there. They figure out the ideal fishing spots, the most effective times to fish and the most innovative ways to continuing reeling them in. But who helps these fishermen?

There are a few programs out there that provide these fishermen with boats and incubate their development process. Others attract existing fishermen and connect them so they can share best practices. There are other programs that find fishermen who have hooked a big one already and have landed what seems to be a high potential social venture. Those programs then help pull.

Such programs are making a significant impact and contributing to this cause but who recruits the fishermen? Who takes the time to show people the need for fish and what it actually means to be a fisherman? Who shows people where there are needs exist in the world and why entrepreneurship is even a solution? Who invests in those who don’t have a pole yet and teaches them with the skills and resources necessary to one day be leading this movement?

The answer is that there isn’t a lot out there right now. But there needs to be. Our vision with Compass Partners is that as long as parts of this world have an insufficient supply of fish, the world is still in need of new incredible fishermen. We’ve reached one important conclusion: if taught to fish, students have the potential to become of the most effective fishermen out there.

- Arthur Woods, Founding Partner