Bo Matthews
What a great night that was at the Bo Mattews Center. You can read about passion in How to Change the World, but seeing Bo reaching the point of tears as he talked about his work - that was something else.
Perhaps the one line that struck me was when Bo was asked about how this all came about. His reply was, “I’ve been pretty lucky.” It reminded me of Vera Cordiero’s modesty in creating Renascer in Brazil. Are all social entrepreneurs this modest? Bo may have had some fortunate events come his way, but clearly he has put in an awful lot of hard work to get the center to where it is today.
Social entrepreurship is about seeing a problem (“[in the NFL] we were treated like kings, but our community was in shambles…”) and bringing together the people and the resources to fix it. It amazes me that Bo and others don’t recognize this as a big deal.
It was really interesting seeing the dynamic between Bo and Claudie as well. They seem like a great team. Bo is the “big guy with a big heart” and formed the vision. Claudie (an even bigger guy, I would argue) seemed to have a little more savvy, but shared Bo’s vision and has enough passion to join him and help him on his venture.
Overall, I found it pretty inspiring.
