While I am optimistic, I am somewhat distressed by the state part of our world is in today. I am distressed by two simple facts... First, while we have prosperity and opulence in many parts of our world--49,000 humans, people just like you and me, die each and every day from starvation and preventable diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, and diarrhea. Second, while we live in comfort, 2.7 billion humans live on under $2 per day. These numbers are Purchase Power Parity (PPP) adjusted--meaning that 42% of the humans in our world must live a full day on the same $2 that you and I would use to buy half a latte at Starbucks. These facts come from the World Bank and the World Health Organization, respectively. When I learned these facts in Economics class at Manatee High School at age 17 from an inspirational teacher Robert Fletcher, I couldn't ever afterwards pretend as if "I didn't know." I've read a lot over the past six years about the topic of human poverty, global politics, and economics--inspirational books like The End of Poverty, The White Man's Burden, How to Change the World, The Bottom Billion, Globalization and Its Discontents, The Lexus & The Olive Tree, The Road to Serfdom, Atlas Shrugged, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, The Secret History of The American Empire, The Fortune at The Bottom of the Pyramid, and The Mystery of Capital. I've come to a conclusion... I want to dedicate the rest of my life to reduce poverty and hunger and increase access to education, healthcare, technology, and entrepreneurial opportunity here at home in North Carolina and the U.S. as well as in developing countries. This is not charity--this is humanity. We will never have a secure world when half of our brothers and sisters do not have access to basic human needs like shelter, food, primary education, and preventative medicine. Personally, I believe entrepreneurship is an essential part of the solution--commercial entrepreneurship, public sector entrepreneurship, and social entrepreneurship. But being an entrepreneur is NOT easy. The knowledge of how to build a successful organization isn't easily learned. Building a new 'start-up' of any type whether a non-profit or for-profit is definitely not simple. I'm only 23 and I feel sometimes like I have developed the scar tissue of a 45 year-old building iContact to $10 million in annual sales. It's truly been an absolute bliss to come in every morning and know that I've played a big role in creating 85 jobs. I get so much energy from being around our team. Being an entrepreneur is truly my passion. I love it, but the experience is what I can only imagine raising a ...

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