Jacqueline Novogratz Quotes

Failure can be an incredibly motivating force.

The only way we really create change is to enter any situation with the humility to listen and to recognize the world as it is, and then the audacity to dream what it could be.

I was encouraged to break all the rules but to take the best of philanthropy, the best of investing, and the best of development finance, and experiment with new ways to create this venture capital model of using philanthropy to back patient capital investments, and then build solutions that were measured in terms of the kind of impact and change they were making on people's lives and in the world, not just on the financial return.

All people deserve access to health at prices they can afford.

The only way we really create change is to enter any situation with the humility to listen and to recognize the world as it is, and then the audacity to dream what it could be, to have the patience to start and let the work teach you, to be willing to lead when you need to lead, and to listen. To have a sense of generosity and empathy, but not over-empathy, because accountability is so critical to building solutions that work.

One of the first things that surprised me in a positive, wonderfully positive way, is that this works - patient capital works.

It's about all of us, and the kind of world that we, together, want to live in and share.

Nothing important happens in life without a cost.

There are probably no more market-oriented individuals on the planet, than low income people.

Very small investments can release the infinite potential that lies in all of us.

What would the world look like if we asked ourselves the following more often; are our actions helping others find a way to feel more freer, more dignified and more beautiful?

When I first went to Africa, I thought that I was personally going to save the continent, if not the world.

When we deny the poor and the vulnerable their own human dignity and capacity for freedom and choice, it becomes self-denial. It becomes a denial of both our collective and individual dignity, at all levels of society.

Entrepreneurs are the seekers of solutions, and that they will go into these places where both market and traditional aid has failed or traditional charity has failed.

There are 60 million generators in Nigeria. The generator owners and distributors have a strong incentive to not encourage the distribution of solar and other alternative energies, even though it's better for the country, it's better for people. As a world, we've got to get more serious about confronting those obstacles. This knows no culture, no race, no ethnicity.

Four billion people on Earth make less than four dollars a day.

I finally understood: In order to contribute to Africa, I would have to know myself better and be clearer about my goals. I would have to be ready to take Africa on its own terms, not mine, and to learn my limits and present myself not as a do-gooder with a big heart, but as someone with something to give and gain by being there. Compassion wasn't enough

I have seen that traditional approaches to charity and aid don't solve problems of poverty. In fact, too often they create dependence.

We are connected to each other not only as humans, but to every living thing on the planet.

I feel like I'm a relentless, pragmatic, determined optimist.

Being poor doesn't mean being ordinary.

Listening is not only about waiting, but it's also learning how better to ask questions.

Our lives are so short. And our time on this planet is so precious. All we have is each other.

When people gain income, they gain choice, and that is fundamental to dignity.

The older I get, the more determined I feel to do whatever I can to help release that human potential somehow. Not in a fluffy way nor in a hardcore way. But in that middle ground, that marriage of love and power. I'm not afraid of either.

The poor also are willing to make, and do make, smart decisions, if you give them that opportunity.

Poverty is not only about income levels, but for lack of freedom that comes from physical insecurity

When systems are broken, it's an opportunity for invention and innovation.

People have to understand that unless social enterprise is experimental, it will not succeed in making a difference.

Your job is not to be perfect, your job is only to be human.

We can send people to the Moon; we can see if there's life on Mars - why can't we get $5 [mosquito] nets to 500 million people?

We don't see profit as a blind instrument.

Just start Don't wait for perfection. Just start and let the work teach you.

Human beings want to see each other. We want to be heard by each other.

When we were walking through the narrow alleys [of the Mathare Valley slums], it was literally impossible not to step in the raw sewage and the garbage alongside the little homes. But at the same time it was also impossible not to see the human vitality, the aspiration and the ambition of the people who live there.

Things are always harder than you think they're going to be.

There is power in creating a small model, and then you can create an alliance of other small models.

On the one hand, I loved being a banker. I loved how numbers could tell a story and how you can invest in ideas and see them translate into products and services and create jobs. What I didn't like, particularly where I was working in Brazil during the debt crisis of the early '80s, was how the poor were excluded from the banking system. I made the decision to try and experiment with whether we could use the tools of banking to extend the benefits of the economy to the poor.

By going from the bottom-up again, we see where successes work, and you can also see where the status quo can be the biggest obstacle or roadblock to success. The kind of entrepreneurs in whom we need to invest are the kind who are willing to fight that status quo, bureaucracy, complacency, and corruption.

Why do some people stop growing at age 30, just going from work to the couch and television, when others stay vibrant, curious, almost childlike into their nineties?

Girls and women are most victimised in societies where boys and men are disempowered.

Monsters will always exist. There's one inside each of us. But an angel lives there, too. There is no more important agenda than figuring out how to slay one and nurture the other.

We need moral leadership and courage in our world.

Freedom ultimately is dignity. And dignity, not income, is the opposite of poverty.

We often don't realize what our action & our inaction do to people we think we will never see & never know.

My whole life has been spent with people who have taken every knock in the world. No advantages. Yet they greet you with a big smile, they give you what they have, and they keep coming back. They are the fighters.

We need leaders, we ourselves need to lead from a place that has the audacity to believe that we ourselves can extend the fundamental assumption that all men are created equal to every, man woman and child on this planet. And we need the humility to recognize that we cannot do it alone.

I still feel that the kind of leader I want to be is one that spends time understanding our work in a way that allows me to translate it for policymakers and people who have real access to resources.