Robert Baden-Powell was an illustrater, painter, military leader and journalist born in 1857 in England. He spent most of his early years in the British army. Aside from being a military person; he had a spy and scout agency which helped determine where the enemy was during battles. He became famous during the Boer war when he was named the hero of the siege of Mafeking between 1899 and 1900.
After the war, he returned to Britain in 1903 as an inspector general of the Cavalry while he was still thinking of what he would do next. He was innovative and aimed his thoughts towards education. He focused on enlighting children, and valued adventure, which in turn brought unity to groups of people. The focuses were friendship, responsibility and self sufficiency.
His career as a philanthropic entrepreneur started when he was almost 50 years old. His organizations were different from others because he included fun and adventure for young people. His first achievement was when he became a military lieutenant. He used his celebrity status to write a book on army scouting which was published in 1899. He sold the book within few months because people wanted to know more about scouting. Later, his colleagues wanted him to write a book on scouting specifically for young boys.
The idea came up when many boys wanted to join the army during the Boer war. A report in 1904 said that the boys who volunteered to fight went without basic needs like food, clothing and bad working conditions. He felt the urge to make them have a better living standard and helped in their well being. During the war, many people talked about how the boys had become less physically fit and their morals had degenerated. This made him reflect on his days as a boy’s brigade and thought of how the organization could come up with something better for them other than marching and drilling.
In 1907, Baden Powell held a camp which made him explore different types of education for boys. He came up with woodcraft as a lesson for boys which constituted the testing of the ideas he had been working on for the welfare of the boy scouts. In addition, he held a series of lectures that were promoted by the YMCA where he also published the information that was sold to many boys in the country. Girls also read the book and they wanted something good done for them also.
They approached him and asked for his intervention because they felt like they were being left behind. He and his wife set up a different scheme for the girls who were required to wear a blue skirt and knickers different from the boys who wore a khaki shirt. He realized that it was better for them to be comrades to the boys which developed girls too. He encouraged both girls and boys to do good which required kindness to strangers and friends which was later a scout’s law.
He instilled good morals in scouts and girl guides by teaching them the importance of loyality, friendship, obedience and taking responsibility for others no matter the situation.Moreover, he encouraged activity saying that people learn from doing what is right and always participating in meaningful tasks. This made him a great educator that most people admired around the world.
Baden Powell had major ideas which made him a great social entrepreneur with is books ranked as the best seller although it was making no profit. He succeeded helping the lives of young people making them social individuals thus improving the society. Empowering young people is the best weapon to bring up good leadership in the world. This was his greatest achievement.