Ian Calvert
Finding Your Purpose
Purpose is what keeps entrepreneurs going when the going gets tough, says Ian Calvert, an internationally recognised expert on purpose-driven business, impact entrepreneurship and social innovation.
Tuck InIan Calvert grew up in advertising and marketing. However, instead of being blinded by the glamour of the industry that claims to own creativity, he used the exposure to diverse industries, leadership styles and operating models to build up a store of wisdom from which young social entrepreneurs are now benefitting.
A graduate of Birmingham (UK) and Aix-Marseille (France) universities, he began his career at Ogilvy & Mather London. Having been Ogilvy Cape Town’s youngest board member at 29, he left to found several advertising and marketing agencies. Among them was Instant Grass, a youth insight and collaboration agency that expanded internationally.
Ian’s experience with Red Bull Amaphiko led to the establishment of FURTHER in 2020. Working with partners such as the SAB Foundation, the Lego Foundation, Allan Gray Orbis, Business & Arts South Africa and British Council, FURTHER empowers community-based impact entrepreneurs through a high-performance human development approach.
10 Tasty Bites
Below is a preview of what you can expect to learn in this recipe.
1 - How Did You Start Working With Entrepreneurs?
2 - What Is The Definition Of An Entrepreneur?
3 - What Is The Difference Between A Startup And A Small Business?
4 - Why Is It Important For Entrepreneurs To Do Personal Foundational Work?
5 - What Are The Ingredients To Access A State Of Flow?
6 - What Is The Importance Of The Problem That Entrepreneurs Solve?
7 - What Are Some Of The Tenets Of Your Work At FURTHER?
8 - How Do You Encourage People To Find Their Purpose?
9 - How Do You Teach Storytelling To Entrepreneurs?
10 - How Can We Uplift The Entrepreneur Sector In South Africa And Create One Million Jobs?
About This Recipe
Contrary to the Silicon Valley version of entrepreneurship, Ian Calvert believes that simply bringing a business to life is a creative act in its own way. It doesn’t have to be the next big innovation - a small business that serves its community and sustains a family and maybe one or two employees is at the heart of social impact and transformation.
Ian elaborates on the difference between a startup and a small business, the need to encourage and recognise unemployed young people’s efforts to become economically active, and why personal development is the birthplace of a successful small business.
What You'll Learn
In this recipe, you will learn how to bring the magic of a Pixar movie into your business, why zebras are more important than unicorns when it comes to addressing poverty and unemployment, and the need for entrepreneurs to be attached to the problem and not the solution.
There is also information on processes that can help reveal your purpose, such as ikigai, and the imperative of measuring and tracking impact. Ian furthermore discusses the three cogs of FURTHER’s high-performance development approach, and the power of storytelling as a business tool.
The overriding learning that comes to the fore, however, centres on purpose and the desire to make a difference as entrepreneurial driving forces.
Learn
Learn from someone who speaks from a position of real authority, perspective and experience.
Do
Implement practical tips and techniques learned in the trenches - doing, rather than talking.
Share
Join a cohort of like-minded entrepreneurs in our growing community and share your learnings as you go.
Get Learning
This entrepreneurial micro-course will take you only a few minutes per day (or you can binge if you want to). Feel free to skip around and please let us know what you think.
Tuck InDeep Cuts
Love this recipe? Here are some additional videos to delve even further into the topic.
Got A Minute (Or Two)?
Why Are Heavy Chef Recipes So Highly Regarded?
One Tasty Recipe.
Ten Tiny Bites.
Each Heavy Chef recipe is made up of ten focused 'learning bites' of five minutes or less.
For Entrepreneurs.
By Entrepreneurs.
Continually focusing on the needs of our ever-growing community of entrepreneurs.
Access Anytime. Anywhere. Anyhow.
As long as you have an internet-enabled device, you can digest a tasty learning bite.
Want Even More?
Heavy Chef has thousands of learning bites, just like these. Search from technology, leadership and creativity topics, served up by the heaviest chefs in the world.
Search Recipes