Just a decade ago, there were virtually no B-school courses or student projects on social entrepreneurship.
 
    But before such a subject can be taught, analyzed, measured, or revered, it must be defined. At the broadest level, a social entrepreneur is one driven by a social mission, a desire to find innovative ways to solve social problems that are not being or cannot be addressed by either the market or the public sector.

A fascinating book, How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein, adopts this broad definition. Well-documented cases of grassroots entrepreneurial activities to tackle such diverse social problems as child abuse, disability, illiteracy, and environmental degradation give life to it.

    Something big is happening in American culture at the moment.
 
    Closer to the American mainstream are the box office film hit (which no one had predicted) The Passion of the Christ and the bestseller book by Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Life, which has sold more than 15 million copies.
 
    In his 2003 book The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse, Gregg Easterbrook writes: "Ever larger numbers of people enjoy reasonable standards of living, but may feel an inner pang on the question of whether their lives have purpose.
 

    So what's left? Meaning. Purpose. Deep life experience.
 
    What is driving this new quest for meaning, this possible Great Awakening?