Matt Damon

Well, I don't know if it's the worst, but I do love telling the story about my father reading the script of Good Will Hunting and telling me that the line, how do you like them apples, would never work.

He told me to take it out of the script.

Hey, rest in peace.

And after the movie came out, he said, Matthew, don't ever give me a script to read again.

That's a great question, actually, because I think if I have a strength, and it's not unique to me, but I think it is a strength for me, is partner selection.

And if I look at my life, actually, all of the things that I'm proud of and that give me true joy and kind of brought value to my life are in partnership with others.

And, you know, starting obviously with Ben and my agent Patrick and everybody who I work with professionally, kind of personally, those are all 30 plus year relationships.

And then into my 30s, this was the significant partnership, you know, when I looked at how I could maximize my impact philanthropically.

And this was the smartest choice I could have made.

What were you looking for in a partner?

Well, the preeminent expert in the field, and when they wouldn't take my call, I wound up with Gary.

Gary, what was it that intrigued you about Matt?

Well, I was floored by just his knowledge and approach.

He was doing things differently, and he already was onto this idea about what we call water credit, which was essentially repurposing the ideas pioneered by Muhammad Yunus at the Crimean Bank and applying it to water.

You know, in those early days, that...

that was a huge thought leap for the microfinance institutions because it wasn't an income generating loan.

Like what Gary had realized, his insight and the brilliance of this idea was from spending, you know, much of his adult life in these communities and watching how everything worked and realizing that

people were paying for water, right?

And these are among the poorest people on the planet.

And they're paying more than the middle class and more than people staying in the nice hotels because they're not connected to the system.