Social entrepreneurs draw strength from each other. When I need a picker-upper, I take a quick stroll to Social Edge to check out the hottest, most enterprising talent. Today I stumbled upon Sam Goldman, a 20's-ish Stanford MBA. Sams not too different from the rest of us... yeah right! This guy is unbelievable! He grew in Mauritania, Pakistan, Peru, India and Rwanda; spent four years in Benin with the Peace Corps; ran a for-profit NGO that processes leaves from the plant (Morina Oleifera) to provide nutritional supplements for hospitals; won the gold medal for discus in Sydney (okay, just kidding about this last one... or am I?). Sam does have an Olympic-style passion that he has thrown behind a new social enterprise called d.light design. d.light (and make sure you de.li.cio.us that!) created a product called Forever-Bright -- a source of light and power generation for low-income rural households in the developing world. The light saves families big time over the costs of kerosene - about $150 over five years or the equivalent of almost a half a year of labor. I'm in! It also is safer because it eliminates indoor pollution caused by kerosene fumes and increases productivity at home. My favorite part of this story, though, is that Sam has raised about a million bucks in capital while holding onto the company (note to self: raise this point with angel investors in Changents). He's basically racked up every social entrepreneur contest in the country. Well done, Sam! Who needs VC money anyway?

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