I recently had an interesting conversation with Brandur Karlsson, the founder of Frumbjörg (social innovation center for the disabled) about entrepreneurship and the status of disabled people. He is now in the process of funding and building up a entrepreneurial office in Reykjavik, Iceland, for people with disabilities where he intends to help them use entrepreneurship to create their own opportunities. He told me that people with disabilities face many problems in the job market and that they usually have very few jobs to choose from so they are not always able to let their true talents and abilities shine through.
Having worked in the entrepreneurial environment for a long time now I have been able to see first hand what people are able to achieve when the put their minds to it. The true possibilities of entrepreneurship fascinates me and I am constantly wondering what the limitations are to this amazing force. Could we use it to fight poverty, to fight ignorance, to eliminate war and to create opportunity for those that have none?
So far I have been able to help regular people create jobs for themselves and others, to create financial freedom and to improve the world through their work. But what about those individuals who have some limitations that are holding them back, can they still use the same knowledge and process to create change in the world? There is no doubt in my mind that they can and Brandur is now working on proving that to the world. Please show your support to the unselfish work that he is doing and support his crowd funding project on Karolina Fund.
Both of us, Brandur and me, are fascinated to see if something like this has been done elsewhere in the world. Please share with us if you know of any entrepreneurial initiatives that have been focused on helping those with disabilities.