We've selected this article as part of our "Blogs by B Corps" series. Ben Powell is the Managing Partner at Agora Partnerships. Agora Partnerships helps impact entrepreneurs and mission-driven businesses serving the world's poorest communities. Agora's approach includes developing leadership in the entrepreneurial sector, building networks, and providing access to growth capital through partnerships, and the Agora Venture Fund and its Accelerator program.

If you are reading this post, chances are you already know we humans are facing many challenges right now. Approximately 1.5 billion people living in poverty; lack of rights and opportunities, especially for women; a planetary eco-system strained to the breaking point. If you are reading this, chances are also high that you are either an entrepreneur, or one in the making, or what I’d call a concerned citizen. Quite possibly you are both.

Entrepreneurs and concerned citizens are the key groups that make our work possible. Throughout history, it’s been those two groups that have stepped up when we have needed them most. They have given us most of our staggered march towards more equality and well-being in the world.

Now more than ever, we need both groups and the unique skills and attitudes they bring when faced with a challenge.

Entrepreneurs are key to solving problems. They won’t rest until they figure out how to make something work better. They are impatient, incredibly persistent, and extremely practical, with a strong sense of self-agency and a high comfort with ambiguity. They possess not only an uncanny ability to set the ball in motion, but to create, through imagination and force of will, an entirely new game with that ball. And then actually convince people to play it. They are creative, able to connect the dots and see the future. The very best ones are fortunetellers – they see the future and then they go and make it so. That’s the essence of entrepreneurship – and that’s why entrepreneurs are so crucial to solving the multiple challenges humanity faces, because we need to change the game we have been playing. They are the ones who step up to the challenge when no one else will and throw themselves into the breach with no Plan B. In this blog, you will get to meet some of the best working in incredibly difficult environments.

Concerned citizens are equally important. When I say “concerned citizens”, I mean exactly that – citizens – educated and empowered, who feel part of the global community, who look at our common challenges and conclude: the status quo is not acceptable; we can, must, and will do better.

Concerned citizens are humanity’s saving grace – they are like the soul of the planet. They are aware of what’s happening in the world and the challenges people are facing. They read newspapers, watch TV, and stay informed, as much as their busy days allow them. They care, deeply.

What makes concerned citizens so powerful is that they do simply observe the state of the world with mounting alarm; they feel compelled to act. Whatever it is they can do – change buying habits, donate, volunteer, invest, start a new venture, create a new policy, write a letter to the editor, rally, protest – they do. Genuine desire to improve the human condition in the here and now, awareness that we are all connected to each other and to the planet characterizes this group. People will have different priorities, but if you genuinely want to make life better for everyone and you are blessed with enough education and freedom to act on that – I’m calling you a concerned citizen.

The spirit of the entrepreneur and the soul of the concerned citizen are two of the greatest forces we have at our disposal to fight humanity’s common threats. Entrepreneurs provide the ability to see the future and create it. Concerned citizens help conjure up the vision of what that future should look like so that it can be sustained. To be sustained, it needs to be in balance. All of the pieces need to align so that we can live peacefully and healthfully together. That’s what we mean by sustainability: the ability to grow in a way that, at its very least, does not harm the present and future human condition and, at its very best, improves it in concrete and measurable ways.

I’m hoping our blog can be a place where concerned citizens and entrepreneurs can come and learn and build a community.

The world needs more entrepreneurs and more concerned citizens.

Ben Powell