Where Chunmei is from

Yanji, Jilin, China

 

Interview

What was your dream when you were a kid? What was the reason?

Musician & documentary film maker – I simply love music and animals, so was dreaming about going to jungles to film wild animals and traveling around the world with my music to give the joy and comfort to people.

 

What was your dream when you were 18 years old? What was the reason?

Looking back those days, actually didn’t have much dreams. Like many young Chinese students, I was busy with preparing my college entrance exams.

 

What made you start thinking about social entrepreneurship/social enterprises? When was that?

From my previous work experiences, I found most of not-for-profit organizations have difficulties in raising funds as well as sustainable operations, and we were no exception. Although there was a significant growth during my past 4 years of work at my previous NGO, I was planning to pursue MBA for gaining more business skills and knowledge till I found the master program of Social Entrepreneurship. For me, it has been no surprise to consider social impacts either in not-for-profit or for-profit organization for every aspect since it has always been my interests and curiosities. So it became a natural decision to make and consider to study more about social entrepreneurship.

 

How much do you think social entrepreneurs play an important role in the world?

I mean, there is no exact answer for this complex world and social entrepreneurship can be an important key role to reduce the gap between the profit driven world and social oriented organizations/charities. It is very encouraging to hear more and more about mission driven business from the corporate world recently. I personally think social entrepreneurship is not just another form of doing business, but it should be a mindset for each of us that no matter what kind of work environment we have, we should concern about the impact we make into this world and should be more mindful to care the communities.

 

What would you say to future social entrepreneurs / those who are interested in social entrepreneurs?

Comparing to other traditional entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship is more demanding and challenging concept for most of us since many people will put doubts, questions, and higher expectations whatever you do. However, it is simply an amazing career and experiences to be connected with similar minded folks who want to contribute positive impacts around the world along the journey. There will be no regret in the end.

 

What is your favorite quote? Who said that quote?

“Live simply so that others may simply live.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“We can do no great things; only small things with great love.” – Mother Teresa

 

Who Chunmei is

Chunmei is a sweet person, like a “who would hate her?” kind of person. She is one of our most beloved classmates.

Chunmei is a good manager, able to organize documents well, getting it done quickly, and notices the small stuff. I know this because Chunmei was my teammate on my third team at Hult. She is also a researcher type, convinced by things based on data, numbers, or facts. She likes research and taking care of the details for projects. I think that Chunmei is definitely part “geek.” Once she starts researching something, she goes deeper and deeper and cannot stop it. Actually, she is surprisingly stubborn — based on my experience, it is very hard to persuade her. Again, you need strong facts or data to convince her. Perhaps ‘stubborn’ is not the best word to describe Chunmei. It is more accurately said that she speaks with a quiet voice, and has a strong will. What’s more, she is active, particularly about attending great conferences — CES 2016 (Consumer Electronic Show), Launch 2016 and GES 2016 (Global Entrepreneurship Summit), and more. See? I think she is on her way to be a geek, if she isn’t already there. Lol.

Chunmei is a cute lady as well. Once she told me that her name Chunmei is written “春(Chun)美(mei)” in Chinese. She also has a sister whose name is “春(Chun)英(ei)” in Chinese. The thing is that “美(mei)” represents the US and “英(ei)” represents England in Chinese. Chunmei informed me of the info since I am Japanese and understand Chinese characters. he told me, “My sister is studying in England and I’m studying in the US. Is it a coincidence?” Well, I thought it was cute, but it is up to you what you think.

 

Awesome Episode

Mysterious…the word fit Chunmei one day this past year. She is usually fashionable, sharp and never shows up without makeup. She is not a person who slacks off about appearance. However, her previous laptop was a black Lenovo, one that did not look new and that seemed very old, but she did not care. A few days later, I saw her at school and noticed that she got a new laptop. It was an Apple MacBook Air with an 11 inch screen. She said, “I didn’t care which one. I just wanted a cheap one. This was the cheap one.” She told me that she got the second-hand laptop on eBay. I believe that she is a kind of a “geek,“ but I also believed the laptop choice was made due partly to  “appearance” and “interest”, which is what she cares and what she likes…but apparently, it was an exception…Chunmei is mysterious.

 

The Power of MSE

What Chunmei is holding is a symbol called “go-en(ご縁)”, which means ‘fate’, ’destiny’ and ’special tie.’

I believe that it is meant to be that we met in San Francisco! I studied Social Entrepreneurship with Chunmei for a year, saying “We will make the world a better place.” I would love to spend the rest of my life with MSEs (Master of Social Entrepreneurship; my classmates) until the very day I die. They have already completely changed my life.

At the same time, however, I also think that we should not be together all the time, because that is not the reason why we learned Social Entrepreneurship. That is not how we will deliver the impact we want to give to society and to the world.

I think MSEs are like dandelions. We were seeded at the first day at Hult and we bloomed on our graduation day. Our mission is that we spread all over the world like dandelions and seed the future, the next generation, from each place where each of us has landed.

本当にありがとう(Honto ni Arigato-); Thank you very very much for everything!! The world needs you! Let’s make the world a better place together!!