Four ways male entrepreneurs can make a positive change

Article by Elliot Wise, founder of Limitless Mentoring 

There are many ways for male entrepreneurs to positively impact both people and the world around them.

So, in this article I’m going to cover 4 of the ways that I try (and others can too!) to make a positive change on my entrepreneurial journey.

1. Finding problems and fixing them

Now I’ll kick things off with a caveat – some of these points are just as applicable entrepreneurs of any gender. However, that being said, it’s often easier to find and fix problems specific to your own demographic. For example, a number of men’s clothing lines dedicated to producing well-fitted, stretchable, formal menswear. The problem is their sizes are not often very inclusive and that men of a certain size often struggle to find shirts, trousers and jackets that fit. More often than not, male-specific problems like these rely on male entrepreneurs to solve them and vice-versa.

2. They can be role models for other men

Similarly to the point above, it’s often much easier to find a role model from someone you can resonate with personally. From a demographic perspective, men will tend to identify with men and women will tend to identify with women. So, becoming a strong, confident, capable and successful man will enable you to become a role model for other men. I firmly believe that many of the problems with today’s young men feeling lost and confused about their place in life and society can be attributed to a lack of positive male role models.

That’s not to say that male role models need to be stereotypically macho. There are plenty of successful male entrepreneurs from all walks of life, doing all kinds of weird and wonderful things to positively impact the world around them. Take the YouTube sensation Mr Beast as a perfect example. He’s a young, ambitious, and wildly philanthropic guy making an astronomical difference to the world around him and is a fantastic role model to young guys out there.

3. They can mentor other entrepreneurs

Business success is always a result of fixing problems. And the bigger the problem you can fix, the bigger the reward (generally speaking). So, entrepreneurs mentoring other entrepreneurs is an unbelievable way to spread the positivity of finding life’s big (and little) problems and solving them in new, innovative and exciting ways.

Sure, this isn’t exclusive to male entrepreneurs, but as I mentioned above, most people search for mentors they can resonate with, who have been where they are and understand what they are going through. In fact, I’d consider these to be essential prerequisites to being a good mentor. From my experience as a business mentor and running a mentoring agency, the numbers game alone tells me that most men do better when mentored by another man, and most women do better when mentored by another woman.

4. Support and celebrate female entrepreneurs

Now, I’m not going to dive headfirst into the gender debates around who has more or less opportunity, what advantages and disadvantages we all have, etc. But I will say that female entrepreneurs are seemingly less common than male entrepreneurs – for whatever reasons they may be. They do exist however and do show that it is possible. I’ve personally worked with lots of women in a business mentoring capacity that have gone on to become wildly successful entrepreneurs. And by supporting and celebrating their success, it might just help other women realise that they have the capacity to achieve the same things in this space.

If the business world relies on people solving problems for other people, and ideas are often born from personal experience, we could always do with more female entrepreneurs. So, championing female entrepreneurs might just help inspire future problem solvers to set up shop and start making a difference themselves…

There are many ways entrepreneurs are making a positive difference to the world around them. I’ve touched on a few that I believe are gender-specific here, but incredible men and women all around the world are providing people with jobs and careers, boosting economies, giving back to communities and charities, building, buying and selling the things and services you use every day.

If you found any of this insightful or useful, follow me on my entrepreneurial journey over @wiseelliot on Instagram or LinkedIn.

About the author

Elliot Wise is a self-made serial entrepreneur, business growth expert and mentor. He is the founder of Limitless Mentoring – an entrepreneurial skills programme for aspiring business leaders.