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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Leila Janah Quotes

I wish the city of San Francisco, bastion of liberalism, were more innovative when it comes to how to spread the wealth.

– Leila Janah

I really love travelling to places where I get to learn something new about a new group of people or a new place. Learn some history, contemplate some business ideas, and sort of get off the beaten track a little bit.

– Leila Janah

So often, we leave the selfless side of ourselves for nights and weekends, for our charity work. It is our duty to inject that into our day-to-day business, into the work that we do, to improve corporations, to improve civil society, and to improve government.

– Leila Janah

Most philanthropists want to be effective altruists. But the problem isn’t intention: it’s measurement. Unlike financial investing, which has reporting standards, audit processes, and educational requirements, social investing is notoriously tricky to evaluate.

– Leila Janah

I always loved fashion and clothes. Not because I think that’s a woman’s place, but because I care about aesthetics. I like art; I like going to art museums, and to me, these things are just manifestations of one’s aesthetic sense.

– Leila Janah

Much like the opportunities that factory work provided for working-class Americans in the last century, microwork will provide opportunities for marginalized people in this one. All they really need is basic literacy, a cheap computer, and an internet hookup.

– Leila Janah

Most of us working on poverty alleviation simply want to know, ‘How much poverty can I reduce for every dollar I donate?’

– Leila Janah

We know what happens when a woman earns money. She is far more likely than a man to spend her earnings on the health and education of her children and to invest in improving her family’s standard of living.

– Leila Janah

I think people are hungry for new ideas and leadership in the world of poverty alleviation. Most development programs are started and led by people with Ph.Ds in economics or policy. Samasource is part of a cadre of younger organizations headed by entrepreneurs from non-traditional backgrounds.

– Leila Janah

Migration is the story of my life: my parents and grandparents journeyed across four continents to flee war and find jobs, eventually finding their way to the U.S.

– Leila Janah

I own a shameless number of ethnic necklaces acquired at local markets in developing countries or inherited from my grandmother. These have seen me through meetings in Davos and visits to refugee camps.

– Leila Janah

Sama means ‘equal’ in Sanskrit; I chose ‘Samasource’ because I thought it really reflected a value that I had and that I wanted the company to have, which is that everyone has equal capabilities and deserves an equal chance.

– Leila Janah

I think the philosophy that you have to have if you travel frequently is, stuff is just stuff. Even if it has some sentimental or family connection, if you lose it in the world, it’s still just a thing, and I think if you don’t have that attitude, you will get incredibly stressed out and not enjoy your travels.

– Leila Janah

Dancing is my therapy. I also try to meditate every morning and take several two-hour yoga classes a week at my favorite yoga studio, Urban Flow.

– Leila Janah

We spend billions on international aid annually, but we don’t find ways to connect people to dignified work. I realized that if we don’t think about ways to harness private capital to solve problems, we’re leaving large amounts of money on the table and doing ourselves a disservice.

– Leila Janah

Often, we think that things are the way they are because of intelligent design – because somebody super-smart, or some group of academics, came up with the best system ever to do XYZ. Actually, things are often the way they are because of an accident of history.

– Leila Janah

Labor looks different in the 21st century. And so should our job training programs.

– Leila Janah

The more time I spent in developing countries, and the more time I spent talking to poor people, I realized what they want more than anything is a good job.

– Leila Janah

The amount of work that a for-profit has to do to get real money is minimal compared to the amount of work it takes a non-profit to get even a very small grant.

– Leila Janah

My mom was a big feminist, and when I was growing up, I wasn’t allowed to have typical girl toys: she did not let me have dolls. Barbies were banned in our household. She read feminist books to me; my mom was a major feminist.

– Leila Janah

I used to think that the worst form of discrimination for women was being hit on or hearing something disparaging. What’s even more challenging for young women is a very senior male who will take an interest in you, who see themselves as father figures or mentors.

– Leila Janah

Every woman that dies or loses her baby on a threadbare cot in the heart of Uganda, while her sisters on the other side of the world enjoy first-class care, is a threat to our collective humanity.

– Leila Janah

In order to thrive in the 21st century, you have to be a savvy citizen of the digital economy or risk being left behind.

– Leila Janah

Impact sourcing, a new initiative piloted by the Rockefeller Foundation and several key partners, including my company Samasource, promises to connect poor and marginalized people to digital jobs on a massive scale.

– Leila Janah

Barbies were banned at our house, along with television other than PBS. As a kid, I found this horribly embarrassing.

– Leila Janah

Bling is passe, and I like my style to reflect just that. Ruthless editing defines true style perfectly.

– Leila Janah

A lot of people are happy to give money to charities but are wary of giving through taxes because they feel it doesn’t produce any value.

– Leila Janah

At Samasource, a company I founded in 2008, we train people living in poverty from Kenya to California to develop and market 21st century digital skills to adapt to new economic realities.

– Leila Janah

I’m the founder and CEO of Sama Group, a family of social enterprises – Samasource, Samahope and SamaUSA – that are working to alleviate poverty by connecting the global community to opportunity in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean and here in the U.S.

– Leila Janah

It’s really helpful to be physically engaged in something that’s completely different from my day-to-day work.

– Leila Janah

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