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.

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

There are cases where government-to-government aid actually has worked. Look at the eradication of smallpox and the near eradication of polio. But these are really top down solutions that require government-to-government support and aid.

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

Africans didn't want saving, thank you very much, least of all not by me.

Traditional charity and aid are never going to solve the problems of poverty.

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