Jessica Jackley
speaker
84 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Jessica Jackley’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
to just go make stuff all the time and to fail fast and to all those, and all those are beautiful ideas and so great. What a gift to get to be that kind of entrepreneur. Many of the entrepreneurs through Kiva obviously are survival entrepreneurs. They're doing what they can do and they don't have a ton of options, certainly not a ton of resources.
And I found those were stories the world needed to hear.
Yeah, that was the opening story. Spoiler.
I didn't know that was a thing. Sounds good today. No, I was so motivated. I realized I could be an entrepreneur. It took all that to convince me. But again, I was like, I'll just go be useful in an NGO somewhere. It'll be great. Then this happened and I thought, oh, that's more fun. I'm going to do that. That's more me.
It's interesting. I've been doing a lot of reflection and writing just for myself lately. It might become a new thing. I'm not sure. But I've been thinking a lot about the different versions of that over time. In the beginning, I had doubts that were more about, am I enough? Am I good enough to try new things, to try again? Even Esquiva was like taking off. I was like, well, but I don't know.
I mean, how much of that was because of me? It was a lot of imposter syndrome, pretty classic. Not that interesting. But, you know. Very typical, though. Very typical. I'm not going to take airtime on that one. We all know what that is. But then I feel like one of the wonderful, beautiful pieces of continuing to take shots on goal is...
You just realize how much just sticking with it and trying again and again and again. That's the trick. That's the thing. And so I noticed that I've tried some things that have worked a little, some things that haven't worked so much, some things that worked for three to five years. And then I've made the call like, oh, the world's changing or my life is changing.
I'm going to switch it or sell it or shut it down. And I feel... wonderful about my life I feel wonderful about the things that I've built or tried to build I don't feel like I need to apologize to anyone even to be totally honest I have chosen I've been so It's ridiculous. But I've had investors that I feel like we all agree. Here's the bet. Here's the bet we're going to place.
Here are the assumptions we're testing out. Let's go run some experiments and we'll all learn together. Maybe we'll learn in a way that allows us to keep building on top of the things that we started. Maybe we'll learn in a different direction. But that's how I'm thinking about this. What do you say? And oh, by the way, there's like potential to be big because that's nice to build.
I think it's boring if you're not trying to do something that could be really big. impactful is the word I would use. It's not about just like size and growth at all costs and growth forever. Like, why do we do that? I think about the things I built and I feel grateful. If I reflect on recent moments when I'm like, it's not, I can't, it's what am I choosing?
What is the combination of things that I'm going to work on and spend my working waking hours on? And every minute away from my family better be for something pretty good because I'm essential and I'm irreplaceable to my kids and my husband.
And I do believe there's a, if you're working on the right things, you're in your own way, kind of irreplaceable there too, but it's just a different category for me. So I think for me to answer your question, talk about a hard time. I've been thinking a lot lately about the fact that except for a few times when I've been in EIR or Or I worked at a startup bank.
Otherwise, I've only worked at my own stuff that I've made up in my own heart and head. And I recently... chose to teach full-time and it's really a beautiful season. And so I'm experiencing that right now. I'm teaching at the USC Marshall School of Business. I teach impact entrepreneurship and design thinking stuff.
There's new courses every semester, but those are what I'm focused on this semester. And I'm really enjoying it. I feel like it's such a breath of fresh air for me to be able to have space to think and to write and to be really creative and also to have a built-in community of wonderful students to learn from and with.
It would be a version of, it's going to be more than you can imagine. It's going to be so good. I always thought I was a pretty good dreamer. And then I felt, I think like out of the gate, my professional dreams, I realized I hadn't even been dreaming big enough. I'm a pretty happy person. And I think I could be happy in a number of different versions of my life.
And Kiva was, it was hard to keep up dream-wise as it grew. So that was such an exceptional experience. And I think in my personal life now, I mean, It's an embarrassment of riches with this crew. So I'm daily just fueled by gratitude.
Oh, it's such a pleasure. And you know, it's occurring to me, I don't want to be rude or pushy, but I wanted to say one other piece that's jumping for me. Like I just usually talk to audiences that are already sort of sold on social impact. And I guess I'd just say this. I think there's a myth of neutrality around impact out there.
Every organization, every company, every person has some kind of impact. So don't be asleep at the wheel. It's the most wonderful, holistic, I think, way to look at risk and opportunity with the widest possible lens. And There's so much that you can do that's intentional and beautiful in the world.
It doesn't just have to be solving for one factor, solving for how much money can we make, how quickly. That's honestly kind of basic. You're like, okay, that's interesting, but what's the meaning? What are you doing? I feel sad when, as an investor, I've heard a lot of pitches, and so many times... I think, oh man, this is your one wild and precious life. That's what you want to build? Okay.
That is not what I feel is worth spending time on, but okay. God bless you. I think there's so much that we can do that is all the things, that checks all the boxes. So I guess if anyone's listening to this and thinking about the thing they're building, the thing they want to build next, there's not a trade-off. There's absolutely not a trade-off with doing good, doing well.
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