a creative entrepreneur

just finished reading andrew mawson's book - the social entrepreneur - very exciting, as it is about his real experience of transforming communities through investing in life bringing relationships - this book is really threaded through with the message that genuinely reciprocal relationships count if we want to live transformatively in our neighbourhoods and in our broader society - andrew speaks plainly about the paucity of relational awareness demonstrated by local government officals, processes, structures and initiatives - you have to get to know some people if you are going to make a difference in a community and government bureaucracy takes no account of that

andrew recounts several shameful examples of wasted time, resources, energy, ideas, not to mention money, squandered on projects that began as well intentioned ideas, but because of relational negligence, end up coming to nothing - this is a frustrating reminder for those of us that have ever experienced the pain of empty committee life and endlessly dehumanizing red tape - mawson makes an excellent argument for the radical re-vamping of a funding/procurement system that is unethical - wasting time and money on 'hollow' consultation and evaluation processes, at the expense of allowing those who have proved over and over again that they can 'deliver the goods' and bring about real change, is downright unjust - and making room within procedures and processes to really 'listen' and 'respect' and 'take a risk' is crucial - mawson points out that you can't 'change the world through a policy paper at little personal cost'

i found this book to be a really inspiring, simple account of one activist's journey to live true to a vision for shalom amongst our friends and neighbours - even in big business or national political circles, that is possible, and indeed probable, if we are able to turn our 'passion into practice' and create genuine community and a sense of trust in our neighbourhoods - entrepreneurs are not always cold hearted, hard nosed, bottom dollar businessmen - people who depend 'on building deeply resilient human connections and being absolutely attentive to the detail of life' can't really be all that bad eh?!