You're ready to change the world. You've had an idea percolating for awhile. "Now is the time to test it," you say. "But what are the first steps to become a social entrepreneur?"

Changemakers asked six successful social entrepreneurs for their answers, based on their own hard-won experience. How do you move from vision to reality?

Some of their advice may surprise you! Social entrepreneurship is a newly emerging profession without a well-trod career path. Social innovators are pioneers – by definition – so you will be forced to navigate without the familiar signposts. Conventional wisdom may not apply, but even when it does you will inevitably improvise as you innovate to change the world.

Get ready, get set, go!

Aleta Margolis

Step one: know what you feel strongly about and why

Aleta Margolis: If you want to be a social entrepreneur, ask yourself: "What specifically do I feel strongly about? What do I want to change?" Know why you are doing it before you jump.

Envision the problem and an ideal world

Amy Barzach

Amy Barzach: Open your eyes and identify the problem. Picture what the solutions should look like, how they would work, and what they would do. It doesn't mean that you have all of the answers, but if you can't articulate a solution that is inspiring to others, you won't be able to solve the problem.

Aleta Margolis: Know where you are going – be clear about your vision of where you want to be. You won't know exactly how you would fix the problem – the "how" is hard work. But you can figure that out if you have a "what" – your vision. You must know the "what." For example, when I started, I knew that the current education system wasn't working. I knew what a good school should look like. I knew where I was going. But I had no idea "how" I was going to get there.

Make your vision big

David Erickson

David Erickson: Have a vision that is completely beyond you – one that is impossible for you. There are a couple of reasons why this is important – one, it is only that kind of a vision that is so compelling to other people. And two, that kind of vision ensures that pursuit of your system-changing idea is not going to be about you, because if it is beyond you, then you are going to be open to the ideas and participation of other people, and you are going to realize that you, too, are participating in something much bigger than yourself.

Be passionate – commit to risk

David Erickson: Do a gut check or a heart check because pursuing a social vision requires a deeply rooted passion.

Kevin Long: You have to have passion. And you have to be willing

Kevin Long

to make a commitment and assume a high level of risk, personally and financially. The social entrepreneurs who are successful take that passion and follow through with a commitment to a sustainable change. For example, during a three-year period I went over $30,000 in debt, developing a sustainable project for deaf education, having no idea if I was absolutely crazy about my extreme passion for the idea and my commitment not to stop until it's accomplished. But it's like being a business entrepreneur: you are going to assume risk.

Matthew Johnson

Have faith

Matthew Johnson: This is connected to faith – believing in yourself, and a higher being. Having faith gives you the vision. You have to know where you are going and how you'd like to see the end result. Being able to go back to your faith daily gives you strength to take that journey.

Listen: share ownership of your cause

Amy Barzach: Articulate your own vision first, but your vision can't be carved in stone. Be open to new information, new connections, and new perspectives because none of us can solve this all by ourselves. I don't think any one of us has all the answers.

Your vision needs to be refined and massaged by others because it needs to be a cause that others can own. You have to be confident enough in your own vision and steadfast enough in pursuit of your goal that you can be open to others' perspectives and hear other peoples' visions and desires. I find that it usually is the strongest, most confident people who can be open to others' input.

So articulate your vision, then let other people express their interest and have ownership. Then figure out a workable plan.

Aleta Margolis: Always keep your ears and your heart open to the wisdom and ideas of others. Even those who disagree with you have much to teach you.

Build a team: peers + mentors

Van Jones: Look at your peer group and mentorship structure and make sure you have quality people in both.

Van Jones

Make sure your peer structure is solid and that you have a vertical structure where you have a mentor who is a few steps ahead of you – someone who is a real "silver back."

You will never be more successful than your team. They are your floor and ceiling – your support structure. You can't out perform your support group, so you've got to be fairly hard-headed about making sure that your support network is stocked with quality people who can run their own shop and solve problems.

Get the right mentors

David Erickson: A mentor is somebody whom you respect and is wise. They may not know anything in particular about the system that you are trying to influence, but they are going to be invaluable to you if they have life experience and wisdom.

Van Jones: I have seen people actually get bad mentors. Look for people who are very successful – not according to themselves or your little view – but who are generally recognized as successful.

Use your mentors well

Van Jones: There is an art to using mentors effectively. They aren't baby sitters or employers. They aren't going to do the work for you, but if they are really good, you can call them in a pinch – or at the beginning of a new phase or end of an old phase – to get the benefit of what they know, or "blue sky" some stuff with them.

It's hard to overutilize a mentor because a mentor who is worth having is going to be too busy to deal with you much. But some people underutilize their mentors, so it is a balancing act. You want to have two or three people who are significantly ahead of you in line – at least five years older than you, if not much more, and who think well enough of you to give you 15 minutes on the phone, at least four or five times a year. But unless they are retired or you are related to them, they won't have a lot of time for you.

They may be on the other coast. You may only talk every other month. But those conversations allow you to keep doing what you do. You've got to have that Rolodex!

People like to nurture other peoples' success. They like to give you some advice. Mentors will throw out fifty names at you – "Call this person and that person." The reality is that you won't be able to follow-up on every piece of it. I know I don't follow-up on one hundred percent of the contacts, myself. But you want to be able to demonstrate that the conversation was meaningful. If you haven't called any people – that makes me (as a mentor) think it's not worth helping you next time.

Surround yourself with leaders

Van Jones: You've got to have top performers in your peer group whom you respect. Make sure you have people in your peer group who are running, starting, and trying to do things. It's very hard to have confidence in yourself and your ideas if you are not surrounding yourself with peers who are equally committed to figuring out their own leadership path. If you look at your peer group and there are more followers than leaders – unless they are following you, you probably need to find other people who are leaders to form community with.

Get a partner

David Erickson: Aggressively seek a partner in this process. It is so helpful to have the support, encouragement, challenge of a partner, and the give-and-take to spur on a big systems-changing idea. It's really lonely and difficult to try to spearhead that on your own.

Be accountable

David Erickson: Make yourself accountable to somebody. This is important, but it is something we naturally try to avoid.

It is easy to get off track when you are out there trying to push against an unbending system and persuade people that change is possible if you are doing it on your own without a point of accountability. Even the best laid plans too often come to naught absent some kind of accountability.

Also, it is too easy for self pity to come in or a false sense of ego and of how important you are. If you are accountable to somebody, it helps to work against this point of accountability. It keeps the focus on the steps that you have committed to follow through on in the next weeks or months.

Know your friends and opponents

Amy Barzach: Identify who your issue affects – who might care about this issue that you are holding so dear. Then start by connecting with them to understand their needs.

Aleta Margolis: Do field research, talk to people. Figure out what they believe, and if they are generally in agreement with you so you can identify your potential allies and obstacles. You will discover who your allies are as you begin discussing your idea with friends, family, and colleagues. I have talked with a number of people about my vision for good schools who have said, "Yes, but I never thought about that before," or "I didn't think it was possible."

Act – don't overanalyze

Van Jones: Many people get stuck in "paralysis by analysis" – by wanting to research and categorize things to death. While you are doing that, other people are finding a space, buying office supplies, and doing things to get moving.

It's more important to start than to have the best idea in the world on paper. Don't analyze the thing to death – not "read this," "write that," or "study this."

Be aggressive enough to go out there in the real world and start something – real world relationships. Even a small effort is a real effort in the real world. Then you are twenty steps ahead of the people with paper proposals but no experience.

You need some kind of plan, but the reality is that you're not likely going to be successful the first couple of times you try to do something. So it's better to get some calluses on your hands and some wear and tear on your sneakers.

Having a series of false starts is actually a blessing. It's better to start three different things that didn't make a mark than never to try. Have the rubber meet the road and go through the experience! Action is probably the best teacher when you are starting.

I don't even like to talk to people that haven't gotten out there and crashed the car a couple of times, because there isn't that much for me to work with. If someone can tell me, "I tried to get a volunteer force of ten people together and they all started fighting," then I have something to do work with!

Focus on collaboration – not starting an organization

Aleta Margolis: Don't start an organization just for the sake of starting something new. Focus on issues, not solely building an organization, so that your purpose is social change. If you find you need to start an organization, as a means to an end – then do it. But you may find an existing group of people already working in your area. If so, work with them and let them revitalize your idea or bring their strengths to it. Whether you start a new organization or not, collaboration is absolutely necessary in order to succeed!

Pick the right battles: make significant impact

Amy Barzach: Imagine that you are sitting in the middle of puddles, ponds, and oceans and you only have three pebbles to throw. If you throw your pebble into a constituency that is the ocean, your small pebble won't be big enough to matter. If instead you throw your pebble into a tiny puddle, you'll impact that puddle in a big way, but ultimately you won't impact the larger cause. Strategically, what you do is look at the constituent groups on which you can have the most effective impact (a "pond") and that becomes the foundation of your workable plan.

An example of an "ocean" for Boundless Playgrounds would be the parents of children with disabilities, in a global sense. It is probably naive for us to try to influence parents on a global basis and hope that would change our world. But on a grassroots level, these parents, educators and others have been coming to us (a "pond"), and it is these proactive parents who end up being a catalyst: they have helped create the first 62 playgrounds that we have built.

One of the strategic "ponds" for us is the playground industry. In Florida, for example, we are working with the playground industry to develop preauthorized playgrounds. Ten of the top 15 national playground producers are participating with us, and our goal is to produce 15 playgrounds in Florida. This is more efficient and ultimately has more impact than the grassroots projects we are doing one-by-one.

Create models

Amy Barzach: Because when you are articulating a new vision, people may not get it. You may know what you are talking about it, but others need to see it. You need to be able to execute your vision in successful models. Boundless Playgrounds needed to first create enough successful models across the country that some of the largest "ponds" were interested in our perspective. We are quite proud that we now have 62 communities and 18 states creating playgrounds for children of all abilities. We call them barrier-free, developmentally advantageous playgrounds because they are based on how children develop and what they need for their development.

Be flexible: expect to fail, learn and change

Aleta Margolis: As you work to make change, your plans for getting there will likely change over time, and that's great! That means you are getting smarter and better informed about how to make things happen. Don't think of that as a failure. Be open to the fact that the "how to get there" is going to change.

Kevin Long: One of the things I continually keep learning is that leading an organization and creating new systems means you are constantly learning. Every three months, I'd realize what an idiot I was.

You need to accept the reality that you are going to be wrong and screw up a lot – but that's part of finding out what works and what doesn't work. It's having the ability to just say, "Yeah, I was wrong." I'm amazed that it keeps happening – I stay on this steep learning curve. I feel like I am skyrocketing straight up. I keep thinking it's going to plateau as this organization grows, but it keeps on going.

Experience others' lives

Van Jones: Reading biographies and autobiographies is very important. It doesn't have to be just people in your own field. Your best company will be people who are dead and gone: people who were ahead of you in line a long time ago. Read their stories late at night when your workers are all out at the club, or cruising on the Internet, or whatever. These people will be whispering in your ear.

You will find that successful people have some common qualities, the same patterns of ups and downs. For example, you may think that Martin Luther King was just making speeches and people were treating him like he was Jesus. But he was really bearing the cross – getting hit left, right and center. The government said he was a socialist, blacks were saying he was a sell out. He hardly had a good day.

People aren't prepared for the ups and downs of this. They just think, "Oh I want to help and make a difference." Then you step into the hornets' nest of the real world. But that is just part of the journey. You will spend a lot of time by yourself, but you will find that's pretty true of the people who are ahead of you in line.

Prepare to deal with anger

Kevin Long: In my job I've found that I am constantly making people upset. Most social entrepreneurs are working on gigantic ideas with extremely limited resources. I am a CEO, program director, fundraiser, marketing director, and accountant. In addition to the international deaf community, my constituency includes my board of directors, volunteers, donors, and customers. I could easily use three full-time persons to accomplish what I am trying to do.

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