Who you are defines how you build.

This is the Entrepreneurals Thought Leaders series.

Brought to you by Stanford E. Corner.

First of all, happy Thanksgiving from all of us at E.T.L.

here at Stanford University.

This week, we're re-releasing an ETL episode with

Samasource founder Lila Jana. In this episode, Jana talks about how she built a digital

first social enterprise that employs over 2,000 full-time workers in East Africa. She sees

incredible potential in impoverished communities all around the world.

And as we enter the holiday season, we hope her perspective inspires you to explore innovative

new ways of making a positive impact on the planet. Here's Lila. So you guys are going to have to bear with me because I'm a little bit emotional today.

The first reason is that as I was rounding the corner on Via Ortega, I rounded the corner on, you know, where Panama and Via Ortega, or Panama and Campus Drive Connect.

And that's actually the building where I incubated Samasaurus 10 years ago.

This is our 10th anniversary year.

So it's really exciting to be back here.

And sadly, my car hasn't been upgraded much in the last 10 years, which you'll learn as a social entrepreneur.

You get a lot of the moral benefits that regular entrepreneurs don't get,

but you don't get a lot of the cash benefits. So I'll talk to you about that. The second reason

that I'm a bit emotional today is that this is the first talk I've given in two months. I had

a series of emergency surgeries in December. And first world health care, access to first world world healthcare is one of those things that will

really make you realize how lucky we are.

And also, for me, made me reflect a lot on the work that we do addressing extreme poverty.

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