Clay Water Brick: Finding Inspiration From Entrepreneurs Who Do the Most With the Least
About This Book:
In the tradition of Kabul Beauty School and Start Something That Matters comes an inspiring story of social entrepreneurship from the co-founder of Kiva, the first online microlending platform for the working poor. Featuring lessons learned from successful businesses in the world’s poorest countries, Jessica Jackley’s Clay Water Brick will motivate readers to more deeply appreciate the incredible entrepreneurial potential that exists in every human being on this planet–especially themselves.
“The heart of entrepreneurship is never about what we have. It’s about what we do.”
Meet Patrick, who had next to nothing and started a thriving business using just the ground beneath his feet . . .
Blessing, who built her shop right in the middle of the road, refusing to take the chance that her customers might pass her by . . .
Constance, who cornered the banana market in her African village with her big personality and sense of mission.
Patrick, Blessing, Constance, and many others are among the poorest of the world’s poor. And yet they each had crucial lessons to teach Jessica Jackley–lessons about resilience, creativity, perseverance, and, above all, entrepreneurship.
For as long as she could remember, Jackley, the co-founder of the revolutionary microlending site Kiva, had a singular and urgent ambition: to help alleviate global poverty. While in her twenties, she set off for Africa to finally meet the people she had long dreamed of helping. The insights of those she met changed her understanding. Today she believes that many of the most inspiring entrepreneurs in the world are not focused on high-tech ventures or making a lot of money; instead, they wake up every day and build better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities, regardless of the things they lack or the obstacles they encounter. As Jackley puts it, “The greatest entrepreneurs succeed not because of what they possess but because of what they are determined to do.”
In Clay Water Brick, Jackley challenges readers to embrace entrepreneurship as a powerful force for change in the world. She shares her own story of founding Kiva with little more than a laptop and a dream, and the stories and the lessons she has learned from those across the globe who are doing the most with the least.
About the Author:
Jessica Jackley is an award-winning social entrepreneur focused on financial inclusion, the sharing economy, and social justice. She is best known as a co-founder of Kiva, the world’s first and largest P2P microlending website. She also co-founded ProFounder, a pioneering crowdfunding platform for U.S. entrepreneurs, and Kin & Co., a consultancy helping organizations support women and working families. She is an investor and advisor with Collaborative Fund, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. An active board member for several nonprofit organizations including Habitat for Humanity, Jackley holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a certificate in Global Leadership and Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a BA from Bucknell University. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three sons.
Information pulled from Amazon product page.
External Summaries
Review of Clay Water Brick by Stanford Social Innovation Review
Review of Clay Water Brick by Financial Times
Review of Clay Water Brick by Huffington Post
Review of Clay Water Brick by Huffington Post
Review of Clay Water Brick by The Christian Science Monitor
Review of Clay Water Brick by Stanford Business Graduate School
Review of Clay Water Brick by Kirkus Review