Published Date: October 20, 2007

I just came across an interview with Jessica Flannery of Kiva at WorldChanging, which has become a regular daily read for me. The interview was conducted by Robert Katz, who is a regular contributor to NextBillion.net, and goes into some of the lesser known aspects of Kiva. I found the interview on WorldChanging, but it was also posted at NextBillion. As many of you know, I’m a huge huge supporter of microfinance — and I think what Matt and Jessica have accomplished with Kiva is simply amazing.

One thing I would like to highlight is Jessica’s answer to the last question of the interview, which I thought was awesome —

RK: What do you want NextBillion.net to know that we don’t already?

JF: Pursue your passion. Peel away the boundaries between you and the people you want to work with. If you do that peeling, you can build connections that change you and change the world. In the course of pursuing passion and peeling away boundaries, you become vulnerable. Don’t fight it. Strive for vulnerability – beautiful things can happen out of it. In that same light, here’s my one-liner: never, ever think you are better than anyone else. If you can live like that, and work in the BOP context, then you can really change things.