Yesterday was the first day of the Hebrew University course on Entrepreneurship and high-tech.
I was the first speaker of the series for the first semester...second semester they break down to small groups and try to come with ideas for start-up.
The course began 8 years ago at the initiative of my friend Nir Barkat, along with dedicated faculty of Hebrew University. For 8 years I participated in the course, as a volunteer, giving my perspective on what it mean to be an entrepreneur.
This year, for the first time, I came to participate in the class as managing partner of a venture fund...all of a sudden, I had a clear agenda...any one of these students could be the next CEO that we fund!
Yes, before there was alway the possibility that I would hire a student (happened twice) but I felt more of a kinship -- now I felt that I was on the dark side...
This represented a tension I often feel in volunteer life. Can we ever be completely altruistic when we are involved in public activities? Or is there always some ulterior motive, some side agenda.
The answer is that whenever we enter the public eye, there are collapsed categories at work. We try to do good, but we know that our doing good will also help us personally, and I for one have no problem with that -- we just need to be self-aware.
Shabbat Shalom,
Jacob
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