Entrepreneurship Is About ‘Creating Hope’

Brian Brault, Incoming Global chairman, Entrepreneurs’ Organisation (EO) in conversation with Munnish Puri, CEO, BW Disrupt discusses his priorities at EO

My three priorities at EO...
There are three priorities that I have. Let me first talk about some of the internal operational priorities that I have.

Right now the Entrepreneurs’ Organization is one of the world’s best-kept secrets when it comes to the entrepreneurial world. We really owe it to the world to change and become a more externally focused organisation.

We will always have in our heart, the key focus of adding value for our members and helping them to build better businesses. But in order to really be the world’s most influential community of entrepreneurs and share the value with more entrepreneurs we are strengthening our communications, both internal and external.

Internally, we want to make sure that all our members around the world understand all the benefits, products, and platforms that help them not only to build better businesses but to also become better husbands, wives, fathers, daughters, mothers, and sons, and to also really be better members of their communities.

Second, the Entrepreneurs’ Organization is committed to being a world-class organisation based on instant connectivity through technology. In order to create this, we are making significant investments in our technology platform that allows us to be a world-class organisation.

Third to me is very personal. It was in early June 2015, while I was running the Entrepreneurial Masters Programme and listening to Jeff Hoffman, a renowned speaker who I had brought in. He is one of the founders of Priceline.com.

Jeff spoke about the fact that in a recent trip around the world when he ended up in the Middle East the concept of ‘entrepreneurship in itself’ creating ‘hope’ became very clear to him. There are so many problems that the world is facing today.

In some of the cities and countries around the world, some people just don’t have hope, and their lives are difficult and challenging, and have almost come to a point where they don’t have anything to live for. So to resort to violence or war or criminal activity is acceptable in their minds. What Jeff said was that if one brings the power of entrepreneurship to these parts of the world, people will be enabled to build better lives. The focus of the people will move from crime and violence to hope and humanity. When he said that, it crystallized a lot of thoughts and feelings stirring inside me that I had never been able to put to words.

Ever since then, I have really been committed to helping EO start to look at the methodology in becoming one of the world’s most influential community of entrepreneurs, and in also understanding that it is more than just building better businesses. It’s really about living a more significant life and being extraordinary and making a mark.

I believe that leadership is not about creating followers, but about serving others to bring out the best in them. People want to help others and be impactful. As leaders, we need to help them make that happen.