In December 2015, I found myself in Phnom Penh learning Human-centered Storytelling through the lens of filming a mini-documentary with a program called The School of Slow Media: Track X.

As part of this amazing experience, my team got to spend time with Youk Chhang—executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam)—a survivor of the Khmer Rouge’s “killing field,” and the driving force behind the process to bring the Khmer Rouge generals to trial for crimes against humanity. It was such an honor, but more than that, it was the single most important moment of my professional career.

Mr. Chhang shared much about his experiences in life; stories that I will always remember. However, one thing he said changed why, what and how I do what I do in the world and how I manage the philanthropy and social responsibility program at CBT Nuggets.

Calmly and with intention, Youk Chhang turned to us and said,

“If you want to get rich, start an NGO in Phnom Penh.”

It hit me like a ton of bricks, sunk into my chest and irrevocably burned me from the inside out. It became the debt I carry.

When I first arrived in Phnom Penh, I was curious about all of the white AID and NGO workers there were in the city, eating at fancy tapas restaurants, visiting with friends at the market (and also that the currency is the American dollar, but that's another conversation for another day).  

Up until this moment, I was wide-eyed, naive and missing a giant piece of the puzzle. I had earned my diploma in Social Innovation at the Center for Executive Training at the UN’s mandated University for Peace, and was collaborating to help social innovators and launch social enterprises.

All of the sudden, I had the sinking realization that development and aid work is an industry. We sweep into a place, “heropreneurs” with shiny sets of solutions, and hearts of gold… BUT what if our shiny new solutions pull resources away from existing, local change makers? What if your work perpetuates the marginalization of the people you are trying to help, what if your new enterprise or your brand of help actually contributes to sustaining the problem?

Consider this example that Youk Chhang shared: You want to help education in an underserved population. How can you do this, earn money, social capital, and be altruistic? You decide start a school, staffed with well-educated foreigners for a cause, funded by all sorts of AID programs around the globe. Well, what about the school that was already there? Now you are pulling students and funding and training away from locals while foreigners are making good money doing so. You are perpetuating the problem.

A presenter from Friends International spoke about orphanages in Phnom Penh, where many (way too many) children are more or less bought away from their families.  They are not true orphans; they are "poverty orphans." Their parents are convinced to surrender their children because they "don't have the means to care for them properly." It would be less costly on the social systems to train the parents advanced skills to be better at the work they do or to innovate an enterprise on their own. Children belong with their families. Add on top of that, that there is a whole tourism industry fueling the existence of these orphanages.

We cannot operate like this anymore.

We need to provide tools for business frameworks in order for local markets to grow and thrive, not just provide billions of pounds of rice or free shoes for life. The only programs that will find success of solving problems are ones that are designed by and with the beneficiary. This is the only way.

The School of Slow Media: Track X experience provided a moral crisis, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I will continue to share this story, these lessons, again and again.

When I was invited to design and run the CSR program at CBT Nuggets, NuggetLove, I became empowered to share the training I have learned in my work experiences and in my training with Track X and the Executive Training Centre of the UN-mandated university, UPEACE, for free, with organizations that are creating real solutions.