The odds of winning the $1M Hult Prize
Last week, the 6 finalists were announced at the Hult Castle in Ashridge, England for the 9th annual Hult Prize (read more about each team on their FB page). On September 15, the finalists will pitch at the UN and one winning team will be awarded one million dollars by President Clinton.
When this year’s challenge was issued last September, 100,000 student social entrepreneurs started out hoping to win largest business plan incubator in the world. Only one team will walk away with the prize. How do those odds stack up to other long shots?
- High school basketball players drafted into the NBA: 3 in 10,000.
- Being killed by a shark: 1 in 3.7 million.
- The current odds of winning the Powerball grand prize: 1 in 292.2 million.
So, yes, there’s only room from one name on the $1,000,000 check. But those who participate are changed more than the guy in Deluth who bought a lotto ticket and — surprise — didn’t win. This isn’t some kumbaya sentiment of how everyone is a winner…well, not exactly.
As impact filmmakers, it’s been our privelege to see this up close and behind the scenes as we document and highlight the year-long Hult Prize experence. The Hult Prize is coming up on it’s 10 year anniversary and we are creating a retrospective documenary showcasing the impact this movement has sparked. Our team collectively has spent months on the road talking with past winners, finalists (i.e. those who didn’t win), volunteers, and hundreds of hopeful participants.
Trajectory — it’s probably the biggest impact the Hult Prize has made. There’s no doubt that the Hult’s $50,000,000 invested in social entrepreneurship has been put to good use. However, from our travels to a dozen countries, that number is no where near the “can’t really ever calculate” value it has provided to 999,999 students who don’t take home the jackpot each year.
Most teams intend to pursue their business regarless of the outcome of the prize. A million bucks would be nice, but it’s not an all-or-nothing game. It’s a generation that wants to do more that just make a buck. The desire to do good is there, but not always the excuse, the permission, or the opportunity. The Hult Prize has been the catalyst for hundreds of thousands of student entrepreneurs.
We ran into story after story of students, judges, campus directors, mentors, volunteers, staff — that have changed their life’s trajectory because of their participation in the Hult Prize. Not every student social entrepreneurship project is going make it (just like any venture). Not everyone is going to change their career forever. But for a lot of students, for the strong majority, it has planted a seed of the possibilities and the potential — that for-profit and for-good are compatiabile and possible and something they want to bring to whatever job they do next.
And we believe that leveraging the free market is the way to make the world a better place, as articulated in this Laudato Sì manifesto, “Think a new thought”
A lot has been said of the founder and CEO of the Hult Prize, Ahmad Ashkar (Entrepreneur Magazine, Esquire, Fast Company) — and he’s earned every ounce of it. It also takes 10,000 volunteers, dozens of staff, campus directors at 1,000+ universities, the Hult family bankroll, and the students themselves to make The Hult Prize the largest incubator in the world.
The Hult Prize is not really a competition. Yes. People compete. One team wins. But from what we’ve seen, this is more about a movement and leading an entire generation to make a difference in the world. The competition is a nice vehicle to facilitate, but not nearly as important as the cargo. The real prize of The Hult Prize is the life-long impact it’s had on the lives of an estimated million students around the globe.
If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on these 999,9999 “losers” of the Hult Prize. The odds of them making a difference in the world is pretty darn good.
