When I first went out on my own, I worked out my house. I can remember the thrill of cranking up my music as high as it could go, though the buzz did not last. The silence beyond the music was deafening. After the first couple of days it hit me: I was truly on my own. It was exciting and terrifying all at the same time. What I didn’t realize was how much I would miss working with other people. Sure, I had my clients that I talked with on the phone a couple times a week, but they were in Ohio so I didn’t see them in person much.

After about six months I got used to the silence but then another couple months later, I realized that I if I didn’t get out of the house during the day, I was going to lose my mind. I just missed human interaction. My unfortunate husband paid the price when he came home – all I could do was talk! My one-year-old daughter and I would often compete for who babbled the most and I think I won most of the time. When I finally realized it was time to get out and network, if not for business, then for my own sanity, life became so much easier.

When my friend Terry Chase Hazell founded her second company, she knew from the beginning that she couldn’t work out of her house. With two young children at home and her office in her bedroom, one of her first corporate tasks was to locate office space. She was able to secure a much bigger office than she needed, but she was the only one in it. She, too, had forgotten how lonely it is as the only full-time employee in a company. It had gotten so bad that her husband, Eric, offered to buy her a volleyball and paint a face on it so she could have a friend (like Tom Hanks’ “friend” Wilson in Cast Away). Now that she is raising money for her company she spends many days out of the office at meetings so it is not so bad. Even so, she tries to convince me to move my office into her space at least once a month. At least she would prefer my company over a volleyball…

The desire and the power to give back to the world through entrepreneurship is a common motivator for many people that start their own business. The impact of business owners giving back is seen everyday. After all, where do you think the Gates Foundation got all of its money? Love him or hate him, is not Bill Gates the ultimate entrepreneur?

A recent article in USA Today shows that you don’t have to have the bank account of the Gates family to give back. Diane Stevens believed an account from a friend of war-torn Sierra Leone was a personal call to action. As the owner of Cole Stevens Salon and Day Spa in Greenbelt, Maryland, she was particularly struck by the story of a hair stylist who works all day on one leg because the other had been amputated, assumedly from injuries sustained in war-related activities. She was struck with an idea: she and three other stylists from her salon raised money to travel to Sierra Leone to teach cosmetology skills to 300 women. For a country which is ranked second-to-last in the world for development, its citizens pride themselves on their appearance, especially their hair. As a result, the program was well received.

I am convinced that business is the only available vehicle for positive global change and, dare I say, world peace. Governments won’t do it – they’ll continue to protect their own interests. Businesses realize the value of global stability and business owners, in general, are driven to do something BIG. What a perfect match!

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