Initially, the work was difficult because historically our people have been persuaded to believe that because they are poor, they lack not only capital, but also knowledge and skills to address their challenges. Instead they are conditioned to believe that solutions to their problems must come from 'outside'.
What is something everyone in your world agrees about that you think is wrong?
Question
What is the part of your job that people would be surprised is most of your job?
Craft & work
There is something wrong with our system when I can leave here and make billions of dollars in 10 years while millions of students can’t afford to pay off their loans, let alone start a business. Look, I know a lot of entrepreneurs, and I don’t know a single person who gave up on starting a business because they might not make enough money. But I know lots of people who haven’t pursued dreams because they didn’t have a cushion to fall back on if they failed. We all know we don’t succeed just by having a good idea or working hard. We succeed by being lucky too. If I had to support my family growing up instead of having time to code, if I didn’t know I’d be fine if Facebook didn’t work out, I wouldn’t be standing here today. If we’re honest, we all know how much luck we’ve had. Every generation expands its definition of equality. Previous generations fought for the vote and civil rights. They had the New Deal and Great Society. Now it’s our time to define a new social contract for our generation. We should have a society that measures progress not just by economic metrics like GDP, but by how many of us have a role we find meaningful.
Harvard University 366th Commencement, Harvard Gazette, 25 May 2017 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 80 →
Wangari Maathai
Founder of the Green Belt Movement; Member of Parliament for Tetu, Kenya, 2002–2007; Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources 2003–2005
Elizabeth Blackburn
Molecular biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 2009
Yes, and, I'll turn your comment around and say it's fairly close to the biological ratio of men and women. It's all the other fields that are aberrant. … This is the normal field, right? Because it is a much more even distribution between men and women, absolutely.
Recorded
Adam Smith, Telephone interview recorded immediately after the prize announcement, Nobel Prize Outreach, 5 October 2009
source ↗
Charlie Munger
Vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, 1978–2023
I realized very early that non-egality would work better in the parts of the world I wanted to inhabit. What do I mean by non-egality? I mean John Wooden, when he was the number one basketball coach in the world. He just said to the bottom five players, “You don't get to play. You're sparring partners.” The top seven did all the playing.
Jacqueline Novogratz
Founder and chief executive of Acumen
On the one hand, we have people that say the aid system is so broken we need to throw it out. And on the other we have people who say the problem is that we need more aid. ... Both sides are right. And the problem is that neither side is listening to the other. Even more problematic, they're not listening to poor people themselves.
More from Mark Zuckerberg
View profile →Instead, I’m here to tell you finding your purpose isn’t enough. The challenge for our generation is creating a world where everyone has a sense of purpose.
More on values & belief
- Which living person do you most admire, and why? 408 answers
- What is the trait you most deplore in others? 199 answers
- What are you unwilling to optimise? 33 answers
- What have you come to understand about what it means to be human? 18 answers
- What do you need to believe in order to get through the day? 13 answers
- What is the most overrated virtue? 10 answers
Also answered this
David Vélez, Steve Jobs, Satya Nadella, Lisa Su, Hiroshi Mikitani, Marvin Minsky
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All values & belief questions
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject