Wow Gareth! Doctors must attend the same conferences where this kind of wisdom is preached regularly! :-)

@eradke, that's an absolutely excellent point. Thank you for calling me out on that and for keeping me true to what I wrote. Some of the best advice I ever got from a teammate was about the value of following up and following through.

Commenters, please forgive me for my delay in responding to all of you! Thank you all so much for your interest in this post and for sharing your thoughts!

@Luke, I fully agree about being flexible and adaptable. One of the key characteristics of successful social entrepreneurs How To Change the World author David Bornstein identified was an ability to self-correct and an ability to adapt - an entrepreneur absolutely has to be able to do both!

@Larry, I also think marketing and advertising are hugely important. One of our mentors, Paul Polak, is famous for saying that developing a transformative service of technology is only 20% of the job. 80% of the job lies in the marketing and distribution of that service so it gets in the hands of the people you're trying to reach.

@Jason, @Alma: I'll pass along your good wishes to my father! :-)

@Roshan, and @Francisco: Thank you so much for your kind words. Indeed, genuineness is vital to all of these things. Which is why I truly appreciate @eradke for making me follow through on these comments.

I love this! It totally made my day! :-)

Dear Mr. Roy, thanks for notifying us of this! I've made sure to credit Hand in Hand for the wonderful picture. Thank you for your permission to use it and we'll be sure to provide photo credit to your organization if we use this photo in the future!

Thanks for your kind words Robb! What you're saying about having a best friend to keep you humble is very true, and one of the three ways John Baldoni suggests to "Keep Your Ego in Check." (http://bit.ly/763gxe).

Thanks so much Stephanie! I'm so glad you liked the post! :-)

That's a phenomenal, thoughtful, and wonderful comment David! We are really looking forward to receiving your application - I can't wait to learn all about Never Say Never! I keep seeing incredible bits of wisdom from Randy Komisar and recently ordered his book "Getting to Plan B" recommended by Dennis Whittle, Global Giving Founder, an interview we did with him here a few weeks ago. Have you read it?

Also, generally speaking, I love quotations and very deeply appreciate your integration of thoughts from a variety of scholarly gentlemen in your comment!

So glad you enjoyed it Renjie! Really appreciate you letting us know and for checking out the blog! :-)

Thanks for your kind words Johnny and Taha! Let us know how we can improve these posts to make them as helpful as possible for you! :-)