“When different individuals come together, we can create something great.”
- William Chan
William Chan, the CEO of 加油香港！ Agent of Change, has been dedicated in playing an active role in youth leadership and community service and initiated projects to help youth in enhancing their capacity in public participation and voluntary services. William participated in co-founding a number of charitable youth organizations and initiated inspiring educational and developmental projects for students and youth. Currently, he is focusing on serving students and youth the advocacy of education for social innovation and mental health.
Agent of Change is a social enterprise focusing on poverty alleviation and providing assistance to the underprivileged through social innovation and life education, providing affordable daily necessities for the underprivileged among our community.
William shared a glimpse of his rollercoastering journey through his inspirational stories during the sharing session. “You can take away people's freedom, but not their dreams,” he says. An accident caused a severe memory loss during William’s young age, but William shared how he turned this unfortunate event into a revelation to pursue a meaningful life through serving others. Aside from the stories of William’s journey, the principle and project operation behind Agent of Change that facilitated in constructing a sustainable system for NGO were also shared at the Q&A session.
William’s belief in using collective power and social innovation shed us some light on how we could alleviate the problem of poverty in Hong Kong. William believes that by connecting different stakeholders to give a shared of hand, and with the intention to bring contribution back to the society allow resources to be shared instead of accuminated. That’s why “sharing instead of accumulating” is the core philosophy behind Agent of Change.
William recommended a classic novel “ Tuesdays with Morrie” for everyone who is interested in seeking wisdom during lost and directionless times. It is a book about the story between Mitch Albom and Morrie Schwartz, his college professor that becomes the mentor of his life, guides him to look into life through the lens of an old man. One of the messages that William left for the youngster is that, seeking a person that they admire as a life mentor can truly change one’s life. Learning from someone else’s experience is one of the ways to colour lives through sharing and caring.
#integrity #service Thank you William for the great sharing. I am deeply impressed by William's reaction when he received 50,000 masks during the outbreak period. Although for social enterprises, making profits may not be the primary goal, but it would still require great courage and belief to give out the masks for free. In this era of polarization, we should really prevent going into extremes but think about the greater goods. Also, I was really touched when William said that we do not need to be 'all-rounded'. We should have clear image of ourselves and develop our strengths, similarly, we should remain objective and critical in starting a business. Again, thank you William for the great sharing!
Wong Hon Yu - Student from ENTR1001
#service #humility Thank you William for the amazing sharing. I was very amazed to hear that you were in a car accident and lost your memory which must have been very difficult. However, even despite that, you managed to become a successful entrepreneur. I am inspired to hear the things you have done to help the underprivileged and the young people. Although I have no such goals right now, I hope in the future to be able to have a similar goal to aid those less privileged than I am.
John Jasper Owen - Student from ENTR1001
