“Nothing is more powerful than an idea who’s time has come”
When it comes to the world’s most influential young entrepreneurs, for clarity, our list is measured by metrics like net worth, valuation of companies, and capital raised. When it comes to true influence, what some of the entrepreneurs on our list have done is simply immeasurable. Innovators like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and David Gorodyansky of Anchorfree have allowed the world to not only communicate more effectively via social media, but their technologies can literally be attributed to making political revolutions like the Arab Spring possible. If you think young people can change the world, then you are right, and the time is now.
Just this winter, the web community rallied around something we cared about with SOPA and PIPA, making sure the bill that could crush internet startups would get tabled. Now, a new social media campaign has hit mainstream, launched by an organization called Invisible Children. The enemy: warlord Joseph Kony. The video launch was one of the fastest growing viral videos of all time, with over 75 million views in the first few days of it’s launch.
It is one of our founding beliefs at Under30CEO that the world’s young people should wake up every single day and do something they are passionate about. See how you can use your tools as entrepreneurs to make impact on this issue today…
What You Need to Know
- Who is Joseph Kony? Joseph Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and is one of the International Criminal Court’s most wanted men for his crimes against humanity, including abducting over 30,000 children to fight for the LRA and trying to overthrow the Ugandan government.
- What has the 26 year long fight been about? Uganda is rich in natural resources including crude oil, natural gas, copper, and cobalt (not diamonds). Control over these assets and government rule, means great wealth and power in a country who’s people live off less than $300 per year.
- Obama has sent troops to Central Africa to aid and support the Ugandan military in Kony’s capture as part of the Lord’s Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act. No American troops are actually engaged in combat.
- The video (below) focuses on educating the world about Kony, and calling both celebrity and government attention to the issue. The narrator says that if the US government stops hearing from the American people on this issue, US aid could end at any time.
- What critics say: Invisible Children and other NGO’s are often accused of being focused on themselves more than the issues at hand. These critics say relief for the war decimated area is more important than Kony’s capture, as the LRA has moved into Congo, Sudan, and the Central African Republic. They also point to the lack of attention being drawn to a disease with no cure, Nodding Syndrome and say it is an even bigger potential killer of children in the region than Kony himself.
- Call to action: Join others in your community on April 20th to Cover the Night and canvas your town with Joseph Kony awareness posters.
Matt Wilson is Co-founder of Under30CEO and is looking to help every entrepreneur on the planet and will lead a new Under30CEO series on social entrepreneurship.
