Wild Times, Touching Lives

Perhaps it’s the economy. Perhaps it’s just a positive sign of human social evolution. Perhaps folks are tired of working for anything less than their highest purpose. Folks are quitting their day jobs and starting careers that involve adventure, philanthropy and profitability. These people are proving that maybe you can have your cake ... and share it too.

Whatever is behind it, it's a powerful movement toward something called "adventure-based social enterprise." Combining business leadership with social good, talented people are doing admirable — and sometimes downright crazy — things to help people in far-flung places around the world.

They’re leaving potentially cushy lives and 9 to 5 jobs behind for the unknown, experiencing life in developing countries while trying to make a difference. Some are living like the locals and lending a hand, while others are dropping in for extreme stunts to raise money and awareness for good causes. No matter how you slice it, it’s a different life and may not be for everybody. But for the three Americans featured here, it’s the only life, and they embody the energy and spirit of the movement.

Take Peter Thum, who abandoned a successful career in strategy consulting to follow his heart into a business no one thought would work, selling bottled water for profit and to raise money for clean water projects around the world.

"At some point around 25, I started focusing on career over passion. But after coming home from a project in Africa in 2001 I felt compelled to do something about the water crisis I’d seen there firsthand,” said Thum. When he came up with the idea for Ethos Water, he immediately saw it as the adventure he was longing for. "I knew I had to do it. The seven-year journey that followed had it all: adrenaline, rejection, self-reflection, brink of financial disaster, wins, failures, surprises and a lot of 100-hour weeks."

The result of his sacrifice is Ethos Water, a multi-million dollar multinational brand whose pithy mission is "helping children get clean water." Ethos has generated millions for that mission, saved thousands of lives and made impressive profits. For Thum personally, the work has involved extreme adventure travel to distressed areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America. To Thum, these humanitarian adventures are the good stuff. His work has taken him to "amazing places to meet wonderful people," people who desperately need access to clean water.

Thum sold Ethos to Starbucks in 2005, and he stayed on for three years as vice president of the Ethos brand and as a director for the Starbucks Foundation. He is now a senior advisor to Starbucks and has founded a new non-profit called Giving Water.

From pay day to poverty

Another adventure-based social entrepreneur is Edusoft founder Jay Kimmelman, who moved to rural China with his then-girlfriend, anthropologist Shannon May. When she told Kimmelman that she was moving, he found himself saying, "I'm moving to rural China too!" The couple made the move to experience firsthand the challenges of living in poverty. After the effort of starting, growing and selling Edusoft, Kimmelman was unclear about what to do next.

"I had to reflect on what I was really passionate about,” he said. The 18 months of adventure that followed included living through a minus 40-degree winter with no running water and only a small indoor fire to provide warmth. The highlight, says Kimmelman, was a three-day traditional Chinese wedding for the couple hosted by local friends and attended by over 1,000 villagers.

As challenging as it was to experience the poverty of China, "it was an amazing experience for us, both personally and as a couple," said Kimmelman. "It made us think differently about everything."

Kimmelman and May used their experience in China, as well as subsequent research in Southeast Asia and Africa, to explore scalable, transformative solutions to poverty. The result of their research is Bridge International Academies, a for-profit company dedicated to providing high-quality, low-cost education to poor Kenyan children. Kimmelman and May are having a very different adventure living with the urban poor in Nairobi, where Bridge International Academies is headquartered.

"Urban poverty is a different thing," said Kimmelman, "we'll visit sites here in Nairobi where we have to walk to school sites through mud and sewage that’s a foot deep, nearly spilling over the tops of our gum boots." But despite — or perhaps because of — the challenging details of daily life among the poor, Kimmelman describes his life in China and Kenya as "fun." In Kenya, Kimmelman said, "people... will do anything for a good education," so not only is it fun, "it's also deeply satisfying work."

Running down a dream

Then there’s Ray Zahab, who abandoned a successful personal-training practice to cobble his disparate passions together into an adventure-based career. Ray loves to run extreme distances, considers himself an adventure junkie, is passionate about helping children and likes to talk. So that’s what Ray decided to do for a living.

He recently ran the entire width of the Sahara Desert — 4,500 miles in 111 days — to raise awareness for clean-water shortages in North Africa. Matt Damon heard about the run and the cause, and agreed to produce a feature length film starring Ray, Running the Sahara.

"I'm just a regular guy who decided to go after what I love to do and care about, and try to make a living at it. You know, I starved for a while. It was scary. I really had to let go of that illusion of security, and at a time when I’d just gotten married and was starting a family. But there’s something about following those core passions without reservation. It’s magic." Ray is now a sought-after speaker who focuses on topics of sustainability, adventure and personal achievement.

For those with a thirst for adventure, a heart for philanthropy, and a mind for business, there is a fast-growing number of role models for the daring leap into adventure-based social enterprise. This kind of work is not for the faint of heart and, as Zahab, Thum, Kimmelman and May will attest, it requires a high tolerance for risk, uncertainty, and danger.

"I swear," said Zahab, "this adventure has nearly ruined me several times — both physically and financially. But to see those kids and to know I’m making a difference ... it's just amazing. It's so worth it."