The stories we tell about each other matter very much. The stories we tell ourselves about our own lives matter. And most of all, I think the way that we participate in each other's stories is of deep importance. I was six years old when I first heard stories about the poor. Now I didn't hear those stories from the poor themselves, I heard them from my Sunday school teacher and Jesus, kind of via my Sunday school teacher. I remember learning that people who were poor needed something material -- food, clothing, shelter -- that they didn't have. And I also was taught, coupled with that, that it was my job -- this classroom full of five and six year-old children -- it was our job, apparently, to help. This is what Jesus asked of us. And then he said, "What you do for the least of these, you do for me." Now I was pretty psyched. I was very eager to be useful in the world -- I think we all have that feeling. And also, it was kind of interesting that God needed help. That was news to me, and it felt like it was a very important thing to get to participate in.
Priče koje pričamo jedni o drugima su veoma važne. Važne su priče koje sebi pričamo o sopstvenim životima. Ali više od svega, mislim da način na koji učestvujemo u međusobnim pričama ima dubokog značaja. Imala sam šest godina kada sam prvi put čula priče o siromašnima. Nisam ih čula od siromašnih lično, čula sam ih od učitelja veronauke i od Isusa, preko učitelja veronauke. Sećam se da sam učila da je siromašnim ljudima potrebno nešto materijalno - hrana, odeća, sklonište - što nemaju. Takođe su me učili, pored toga, - učionica je bila puno petogodišnjaka i šestogodišnjaka - da je naš posao, očigledno, da pomažemo. To je Isus tražio od nas. A onda je rekao, "Kad učiniste jednome od ove moje najmanje braće, meni učiniste." Bila sam prilično uzbuđena. Jedva sam čekala da budem od koristi svetu. Mislim da svi to osećamo. Takođe je bilo interesantno da je Bogu potrebna pomoć. To je za mene bila novost, i osećala sam da je to važna stvar u kojoj treba učestvovati.
But I also learned very soon thereafter that Jesus also said, and I'm paraphrasing, the poor would always be with us. This frustrated and confused me; I felt like I had been just given a homework assignment that I had to do, and I was excited to do, but no matter what I would do, I would fail. So I felt confused, a little bit frustrated and angry, like maybe I'd misunderstood something here. And I felt overwhelmed. And for the first time, I began to fear this group of people and to feel negative emotion towards a whole group of people. I imagined in my head, a kind of long line of individuals that were never going away, that would always be with us. They were always going to ask me to help them and give them things, which I was excited to do, but I didn't know how it was going to work. And I didn't know what would happen when I ran out of things to give, especially if the problem was never going away. In the years following, the other stories I heard about the poor growing up were no more positive. For example, I saw pictures and images frequently of sadness and suffering. I heard about things that were going wrong in the lives of the poor. I heard about disease, I heard about war -- they always seemed to be kind of related. And in general, I got this sort of idea that the poor in the world lived lives that were wrought with suffering and sadness, devastation, hopelessness.
Ali sam takođe uskoro otkrila da je Isus pored toga rekao, parafraziraću, da će siromašnih uvek biti među nama. To me je frustriralo i zbunjivalo. Osećala sam se kao da sam dobila domaći koji moram da uradim i zbog kog sam uzbuđena, ali šta god da uradim, doživljavam neuspeh. Bila sam zbunjena, pomalo frustrirana i ljuta, kao da sam možda nešto pogrešno razumela. Osećala sam se preplavljeno. I po prvi put sam počela da se bojim te grupe ljudi, i da osećam negativne emocije prema celoj jednoj grupi. U glavi sam zamišljala dugačak red osoba koje nikad neće otići, koje će uvek biti s nama. Uvek će tražiti da im pomognem i da im dajem stvari, oko čega sam bila uzbuđena, ali nisam znala kako će to da funkcioniše. I nisam znala šta bi se dogodilo da ostanem bez stvari za davanje, naročito ako taj problem neće nestati. U narednim godinama, druge priče koje sam, odrastajući, slušala o siromašnima nisu bile pozitivnije. Na primer, često sam viđala slike tuge i patnje. Čula sam za stvari koje polaze po zlu u životima siromašnih. Slušala sam o bolestima. O ratu. Oni su uvek bili povezani. I uopšte, mislila sam da siromašni u ovom svetu žive živote koji su prožeti patnjom i tugom, uništavanjem i beznađem.
And after a while, I developed what I think many of us do, is this predictable response, where I started to feel bad every time I heard about them. I started to feel guilty for my own relative wealth, because I wasn't doing more, apparently, to make things better. And I even felt a sense of shame because of that. And so naturally, I started to distance myself. I stopped listening to their stories quite as closely as I had before. And I stopped expecting things to really change. Now I still gave -- on the outside it looked like I was still quite involved. I gave of my time and my money, I gave when solutions were on sale. The cost of a cup of coffee can save a child's life, right. I mean who can argue with that? I gave when I was cornered, when it was difficult to avoid and I gave, in general, when the negative emotions built up enough that I gave to relieve my own suffering, not someone else's. The truth be told, I was giving out of that place, not out of a genuine place of hope and excitement to help and of generosity. It became a transaction for me, became sort of a trade. I was purchasing something -- I was buying my right to go on with my day and not necessarily be bothered by this bad news. And I think the way that we go through that sometimes can, first of all, disembody a group of people, individuals out there in the world. And it can also turn into a commodity, which is a very scary thing. So as I did this, and as I think many of us do this, we kind of buy our distance, we kind of buy our right to go on with our day. I think that exchange can actually get in the way of the very thing that we want most. It can get in the way of our desire to really be meaningful and useful in another person's life and, in short to love.
I posle nekog vremena, razvila sam, kao i mnogi od nas, jedan predvidiv odgovor, kad bih se osećala loše svaki put kad bih slušala o njima. Počela sam da se osećam krivom za svoje dobrostanje, jer očigledno, nisam činila više da bih poboljšala stvari. Čak sam se zbog toga i stidela. Tako sam, prirodno, počela da se distanciram. Prestala sam da njihove priče slušam pažljivo, kao ranije. Prestala sam da očekujem da se stvari zaista promene. I dalje sam davala. Spolja je izgledalo kao da sam i dalje uključena. Davala sam svoje vreme i novac. Davala sam kada su rešenja bila moguća. Cena šoljice kafe može spasiti život deteta, da. Mislim, ko može tome da se suprotstavi? Davala sam kad sam morala, kad nije moglo da se izbegne, i uglavnom sam davala kada bi se dovoljno negativnih osećanja nakupilo, da sam davala kako bih olakšala sopstvenu patnju, a ne patnju nekog drugog. Iskreno, zbog toga sam davala, a ne iz iskrene nade i uzbuđenja što pomažem i iz velikodušnosti. To je za mene postala transakcija, neka vrsta razmene. Kupovala sam nešto. Kupovala sam svoje pravo da nastavim sa svojim danom i da me ne gnjave te loše vesti. Mislim da način na koji nekad idemo kroz to može, pre svega, da obezvredi grupu ljudi, osobe, u svetu. I može da se pretvori u robu, što je veoma zastrašujuća stvar. Mislim da mnogi od nas to čine, mi kupujemo svoju distancu, kupujemo svoje pravo da nastavimo svoj dan. Mislim da ta razmena može da se ispreči na putu onome što najviše želimo. Da se ispreči našoj želji da budemo značajni i korisni u životu druge osobe i ukratko, da se ispreči ljubavi.
Thankfully, a few years ago, things shifted for me because I heard this gentleman speak, Dr. Muhammad Yunus. I know many in the room probably know exactly who he is, but to give the shorthand version for any who have not heard him speak, Dr. Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize a few years ago for his work pioneering modern microfinance. When I heard him speak, it was three years before that. But basically, microfinance -- if this is new to you as well -- think of that as financial services for the poor. Think of all the things you get at your bank and imagine those products and services tailored to the needs of someone living on a few dollars a day. Dr. Yunus shared his story, explaining what that was, and what he had done with his Grameen Bank. He also talked about, in particular, microlending, which is a tiny loan that could help someone start or grow a business. Now, when I heard him speak, it was exciting for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I learned about this new method of change in the world that, for once, showed me, maybe, a way to interact with someone and to give, to share of a resource in a way that wasn't weird and didn't make me feel bad -- that was exciting. But more importantly, he told stories about the poor that were different than any stories I had heard before. In fact, those individuals he talked about who were poor was sort of a side note. He was talking about strong, smart, hardworking entrepreneurs who woke up every day and were doing things to make their lives and their family's lives better. All they needed to do that more quickly and to do it better was a little bit of capital. It was an amazing sort of insight for me.
Na sreću, pre nekoliko godina su mi se stvari promenile jer sam čula govor jednog gospodina, doktora Muhameda Junusa. Znam da mnogi ovde verovatno znaju ko je tačno on, ali da ukratko pojasnim onima koji ga nisu nikad čuli, dr Junus je dobio Nobelovu nagradu pre nekoliko godina za svoj pionirski rad na polju modernih mikrofinansiranja. Ja sam ga slušala tri godine pre toga. Ali u osnovi - ako vam je i ovo novo - mislite o mikrofinansiranju kao finansijskoj podršci za siromašne. Zamislite sve što dobijate u svojoj banci i zamislite te proizvode i usluge prilagođene potrebama onih koji žive od nekoliko dolara dnevno. Doktor Junus je podelio svoju priču, objasnio o čemu se radi, i šta je uradio sa svojom "Gramin bankom". Takođe je posebno govorio o mikrozajmovima, to su sićušni zajmovi koji mogu pomoći nekome da započne ili razvije posao. Kada sam ga čula, bila sam uzbuđena iz nekoliko razloga. Prvo i pre svega, naučila sam novi način promene u svetu koji mi je konačno pokazao, možda, način interakcije i davanja drugome, deljenja resursa na način koji nije čudan i zbog kog se ne osećam loše. To je bilo uzbudljivo. Ali što je važnije, pričao je priče o siromašnima koje su bile drugačije od svih koje sam pre čula. Ustvari, to da su ti ljudi bili siromašni, bila je sporedna priča. Govorio je o jakim, pametnim, vrednim preduzetnicima koji se bude svakog dana i rade stvari da učine svoj i živote svoje porodice boljim. Sve što im je bilo potrebno da to urade brže i bolje, bilo je malo ulaganja. To je za mene bio neverovatan uvid.
And I, in fact, was so deeply moved by this -- it's hard to express now how much that affected me -- but I was so moved that I actually quit my job a few weeks later, and I moved to East Africa to try to see for myself what this was about. For the first time, actually, in a long time I wanted to meet those individuals, I wanted to meet these entrepreneurs, and see for myself what their lives were actually about. So I spent three months in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania interviewing entrepreneurs that had received 100 dollars to start or grow a business. And in fact, through those interactions, for the first time, I was starting to get to be friends with some of those people in that big amorphous group out there that was supposed to be far away. I was starting to be friends and get to know their personal stories. And over and over again, as I interviewed them and spent my days with them, I did hear stories of life change and amazing little details of change.
Ustvari, toliko sam bila time dirnuta, sada je teško pokazati koliko je to uticalo na mene, ali toliko sam bila dirnuta da sam ostavila posao nekoliko nedelja kasnije, i preselila se u Istočnu Afriku da pokušam sama da vidim o čemu se tu radi. Po prvi put, posle mnogo vremena, želela sam da upoznam te ljude, te preduzetnike i uverim se sama kakvi su njihovi životi. Provela sam tri meseca u Keniji, Ugandi i Tanzaniji intervjuišući preduzetnike koji su dobili 100 dolara za početak ili razvoj posla. Ustvari, kroz te interakcije sam po prvi put postajala prijatelj sa nekim od tih ljudi iz te bezoblične grupe koja je trebalo da bude negde daleko. Postajali smo prijatelji i saznavala sam njihove lične priče. I iznova i iznova, dok sam ih intervjuisala i provodila dane s njima, čula sam priče o životnim promenama i neverovatne detalje promena.
So I would hear from goat herders who had used that money that they had received to buy a few more goats. Their business trajectory would change. They would make a little bit more money; their standard of living would shift and would get better. And they would make really interesting little adjustments in their lives, like they would start to send their children to school. They might be able to buy mosquito nets. Maybe they could afford a lock for the door and feel secure. Maybe it was just that they could put sugar in their tea and offer that to me when I came as their guest and that made them feel proud. But there were these beautiful details, even if I talked to 20 goat herders in a row, and some days that's what happened -- these beautiful details of life change that were meaningful to them. That was another thing that really touched me. It was really humbling to see for the first time, to really understand that even if I could have taken a magic wand and fixed everything, I probably would have gotten a lot wrong. Because the best way for people to change their lives is for them to have control and to do that in a way that they believe is best for them. So I saw that and it was very humbling.
Uzgajivači koza su pričali kako su iskoristili taj novac da kupe još koju kozu. Putanja njihovog posla bi se promenila. Zaradili bi malo više novca. Njihov životni standard bi se promenio i poboljšao. I napravili bi zanimljiva mala poboljšanja u životima, počinjali bi da upisuju decu u škole. Mogli bi da priušte mreže za komarce. Možda i bravu za vrata, kako bi se osećali sigurnije. Možda samo da imaju šećera za čaj koji bi mi ponudili kad bih došla u posetu, zbog čega bi bili ponosni. Bilo je tih divnih detalja, čak i kad bih pričala sa 20 uzgajivača koza, a to se dešavalo nekim danima, ti divni detalji životnih promena koji su im bili značajni. To me je takođe veoma dirnulo. Bilo je ponizno, po prvi put videti i zaista razumeti da, čak i da sam mogla čarobnim štapićem da sve popravim, verovatno bih mnogo pogrešila. Jer najbolji način da ljudi promene svoje živote je da preuzmu kontrolu i to na način koji je najbolji za njih. Videla sam to, i osećala se veoma ponizno.
Anyway, another interesting thing happened while I was there. I never once was asked for a donation, which had kind of been my mode, right. There's poverty, you give money to help -- no one asked me for a donation. In fact, no one wanted me to feel bad for them at all. If anything, they just wanted to be able to do more of what they were doing already and to build on their own capabilities. So what I did hear, once in a while, was that people wanted a loan -- I thought that sounded very reasonable and really exciting. And by the way, I was a philosophy and poetry major in school, so I didn't know the difference between profit and revenue when I went to East Africa. I just got this impression that the money would work. And my introduction to business was in these $100 little infuses of capital. And I learned about profit and revenue, about leverage, all sorts of things, from farmers, from seamstresses, from goat herders. So this idea that these new stories of business and hope might be shared with my friends and family, and through that, maybe we could get some of the money that they needed to be able to continue their businesses as loans, that's this little idea that turned into Kiva.
Još jedna zanimljiva stvar se desila dok sam bila tamo. Nijednom niko nije tražio donaciju, a to je bio moj način funkcionisanja. Gde je siromaštvo, daju se pare za pomoć. Niko mi nije tražio donaciju. Ustvari, niko uopšte nije želeo da se osećam loše zbog njih. Ako išta, želeli su da mogu da urade više onoga što su već radili i da grade od svojih sposobnosti. A s vremena na vreme sam čula da ljudi žele zajam - mislila sam da to zvuči veoma uzbudljivo i razumno. Usput, studirala sam filozofiju i poeziju, tako da, kada sam otišla u Afriku, nisam znala razliku između dobiti i prihoda. Samo sam imala utisak da će novac pomoći. Moje upoznavanje sa poslom je bilo kroz te pozajmice od 100$. Naučila sam i o dobitku i prihodu, o finansijskim polugama, o svakakvim stvarima, od zemljoradnika, od švalja, od uzgajivača koza. Ideja da ove nove priče o poslu i o nadi mogu da podelim sa prijateljima i porodicom, i na taj način možda skupimo još novca koji im je potreban, da bi nastavili sa svojim poslovima, ta mala ideja se pretvorila u "Kivu".
A few months later, I went back to Uganda with a digital camera and a basic website that my partner, Matthew, and I had kind of built, and took pictures of seven of my new friends, posted their stories, these stories of entrepreneurship, up on the website, spammed friends and family and said, "We think this is legal. Haven't heard back yet from SEC on all the details, but do you say, do you want to help participate in this, provide the money that they need?" The money came in basically overnight. We sent it over to Uganda. And over the next six months, a beautiful thing happened; the entrepreneurs received the money, they were paid, and their businesses, in fact, grew, and they were able to support themselves and change the trajectory of their lives. In October of '05, after those first seven loans were paid, Matt and I took the word beta off of the site. We said, "Our little experiment has been a success. Let's start for real." That was our official launch. And then that first year, October '05 through '06, Kiva facilitated $500,000 in loans. The second year, it was a total of 15 million. The third year, the total was up to around 40. The fourth year, we were just short of 100. And today, less than five years in, Kiva's facilitated more than 150 million dollars, in little 25-dollar bits, from lenders and entrepreneurs -- more than a million of those, collectively in 200 countries.
Posle nekoliko meseci sam se vratila u Ugandu sa digitalnim aparatom i osnovnim sajtom koji smo moj partner, Metju i ja napravili, i slikala sam sedmoro svojih novih prijatelja, postavila njihove priče o preduzetništvu na sajt, spamovala prijatelje i porodicu i rekla "Mislimo da je ovo legalno. Još nismo saznali sve detalje od komisije za sigurnost, ali da li želite da pomognete učestvujući u ovome, da obezbedimo novac koji im je potreban?" Novac je bukvalno preko noći stigao. Poslali smo ga u Ugandu. I u narednih šest meseci, desila se divna stvar; preduzetnici su primili novac, bili su plaćeni i njihovi poslovi su porasli, i mogli su da se izdržavaju i promene putanju svojih života. U oktobru 2005. pošto je tih prvih 7 zajmova otplaćeno, Met i ja smo sa sajta skinuli reč "beta". Rekli smo, "Naš mali eksperiment je uspeo. Počnimo zapravo." To je bio naš zvanični početak. I te prve godine, od oktobra 2005. do 2006. kroz "Kivu" je prošlo 500.000$ zajmova. Druge godine, ukupno 15 miliona. Tokom treće godine, ukupno je bilo oko 40. Četvrte godine malo je falilo do 100 miliona. A danas, za manje od 5 godina, "Kiva" je obezbedila više od 150 miliona dolara, u komadima od 25 dolara, od zajmodavaca i preduzetnika - više od milion njih, u ukupno 200 zemalja.
So that's where Kiva is today, just to bring you right up to the present. And while those numbers and those statistics are really fun to talk about and they're interesting, to me, Kiva's really about stories. It's about retelling the story of the poor, and it's about giving ourselves an opportunity to engage that validates their dignity, validates a partnership relationship, not a relationship that's based on the traditional sort of donor beneficiary weirdness that can happen. But instead a relationship that can promote respect and hope and this optimism that together we can move forward. So what I hope is that, not only can the money keep flowing forth through Kiva -- that's a very positive and meaningful thing -- but I hope Kiva can blur those lines, like I said, between the traditional rich and poor categories that we're taught to see in the world, this false dichotomy of us and them, have and have not. I hope that Kiva can blur those lines. Because as that happens, I think we can feel free to interact in a way that's more open, more just and more creative, to engage with each other and to help each other.
Eto tu je "Kiva" danas, samo da vam predstavim stanje. I dok su ti brojevi i statistika stvarno zabavni za priču i veoma zanimljivi, za mene se u "Kivi" radi o pričama. Radi se o prepričavanju priče o siromašnima, o davanju prilike sebi da se uključimo, čime uvažavamo njihovo dostojanstvo, uvažavamo partnerski odnos, a ne odnos koji je zasnovan na tradicionalnoj neprijatnosti donatora koja se može dogoditi. Umesto toga, odnos koji može da promoviše poštovanje i nadu i optimizam da zajedno možemo napredovati. Nadam se da neće samo novac prolaziti kroz "Kivu" - to je veoma pozitivna i značajna stvar - ali nadam se da "Kiva" može da pomuti granice između tradicionalnih kategorija bogatih i siromašnih, koje smo naučeni da vidimo u svetu, ta dihotomija nas i njih, onih koji imaju i koji nemaju. Nadam se da "Kiva" može da ublaži te granice. Jer, kako se to dešava, mislim da možemo slobodno da se uključimo na otvoreniji, pravedniji i kreativniji način, da angažujemo jedni druge i da pomognemo jedni drugima.
Imagine how you feel when you see somebody on street who is begging and you're about to approach them. Imagine how you feel; and then imagine the difference when you might see somebody who has a story of entrepreneurship and hard work who wants to tell you about their business. Maybe they're smiling, and they want to talk to you about what they've done. Imagine if you're speaking with somebody who's growing things and making them flourish, somebody who's using their talents to do something productive, somebody who's built their own business from scratch, someone who is surrounded by abundance, not scarcity, who's in fact creating abundance, somebody with full hands with something to offer, not empty hands asking for you to give them something. Imagine if you could hear a story you didn't expect of somebody who wakes up every day and works very, very hard to make their life better. These stories can really change the way that we think about each other. And if we can catalyze a supportive community to come around these individuals and to participate in their story by lending a little bit of money, I think that can change the way we believe in each other and each other's potential.
Zamislite kako se osećate kada vidite da neko na ulici prosi i hoćete da mu priđete. Zamislite kako se osećate. A onda zamislite razliku kad biste videli nekog ko ima priču preduzetnika i napornog rada, ko želi da vam ispriča o svom poslu. Možda se smeše i žele da vam ispričaju šta su uradili. Zamislite da razgovarate s nekim ko gaji nešto i to buja, s nekim ko koristi svoje talente da uradi nešto produktivno, s nekim ko je izgradio svoj posao od nule, nekim ko je okružen obiljem a ne nemaštinom, ko zapravo stvara obilje, s nekim ko ima pune ruke nečega da ponudi, a ne prazne ruke i moli vas da mu nešto date. Zamislite da možete da čujete priču koju niste očekivali, o nekome ko se svakog dana budi i veoma, veoma naporno radi da poboljša svoj život. Te priče mogu stvarno da promene način na koji mislimo jedni o drugima. I ako možemo da stvorimo podržavajuće društvo oko ovih pojedinaca i da učestvujemo u njihovim pričama time što ćemo im pozajmiti nešto novca, mislim da to može promeniti način na koji verujemo jedni u druge i u međusobni potencijal.
Now for me, Kiva is just the beginning. And as I look forward to what is next, it's been helpful to reflect on the things I've learned so far. The first one is, as I mentioned, entrepreneurship was a new idea to me. Kiva borrowers, as I interviewed them and got to know them over the last few years, have taught me what entrepreneurship is. And I think, at its core, it's deciding that you want your life to be better. You see an opportunity and you decide what you're going to do to try to seize that. In short, it's deciding that tomorrow can better than today and going after that. Second thing that I've learned is that loans are a very interesting tool for connectivity. So they're not a donation. Yeah, maybe it doesn't sound that much different. But in fact, when you give something to someone and they say, "Thanks," and let you know how things go, that's one thing. When you lend them money, and they slowly pay you back over time, you have this excuse to have an ongoing dialogue. This continued attention -- this ongoing attention -- is a really big deal to build different kinds of relationships among us. And then third, from what I've heard from the entrepreneurs I've gotten to know, when all else is equal, given the option to have just money to do what you need to do, or money plus the support and encouragement of a global community, people choose the community plus the money. That's a much more meaningful combination, a more powerful combination.
Za mene, "Kiva" je tek početak. I dok gledam šta sledi, lepo je videti šta sam do sada naučila. Prvo, kao što sam rekla, preduzetništvo je za mene bilo nova ideja. "Kivini" dužnici, koje sam intervjuisala i upoznala poslednjih godina, su me naučili šta je preduzetništvo. Mislim da je to, u srži, odluka da želite da vam život bude bolji. Vidite priliku i odlučite šta ćete uraditi da pokušate da je ugrabite. Ukratko, to je odluka da sutrašnjica može biti bolja danas i rad na tome. Sledeće što sam naučila je da su zajmovi zanimljiv alat povezivanja. Oni nisu donacija. Dobro, možda ne zvuče drugačije. Ustvari, kada nekome nešto date i oni kažu "hvala" i obaveste vas kako stvari idu, to je jedno. Kada pozajmite novac i oni vam polako vremenom vraćaju, imate izgovor za stalan dijalog. Ta neprekidna pažnja, koja traje, je veoma značajna za izgradnju različitih veza među nama. I treće, što sam čula od preduzetnika koje sam upoznala, kada je sve ostalo jednako, ako imate samo novac da uradite ono što želite ili novac i podršku i ohrabrenje globalne zajednice, ljudi biraju zajednicu i novac. To ima mnogo više smisla, mnogo je moćnija kombinacija.
So with that in mind, this particular incident has led to the things that I'm working on now. I see entrepreneurs everywhere now, now that I'm tuned into this. And one thing that I've seen is there are a lot of supportive communities that already exist in the world. With social networks, it's an amazing way, growing the number of people that we all have around us in our own supportive communities, rapidly. And so, as I have been thinking about this, I've been wondering: how can we engage these supportive communities to catalyze even more entrepreneurial ideas and to catalyze all of us to make tomorrow better than today? As I've researched what's going on in the United States, a few interesting little insights have come up. So one is that, of course, as we all might expect, many small businesses in the U.S. and all over the world still need money to grow and to do more of what they want to do or they might need money during a hard month. But there's always a need for resources close by. Another thing is, it turns out, those resources don't usually come from the places you might expect -- banks, venture capitalists, other organizations and support structures -- they come from friends and family. Some statistics say 85 percent or more of funding for small businesses comes from friends and family. That's around 130 billion dollars a year -- it's a lot. And third, so as people are doing this friends and family fundraising process, it's very awkward, people don't know exactly what to ask for, how to ask, what to promise in return, even though they have the best of intentions and want to thank those people that are supporting them.
Sa tim na umu, jedan događaj je doveo do onoga na čemu trenutno radim. Sad kada sam u ovome, svuda viđam preduzetnike. A vidim i da u svetu već postoje mnoga društva koja su podržavajuća. Društvene mreže su neverovatne i čine da brzo raste broj ljudi u zajednicama koje pružaju podršku. I tako razmišljam o tome i pitam se: kako možemo angažovati te zajednice da iznedre još preduzetničkih ideja i da nas podstaknu da sutrašnjicu načinimo boljom danas? Istraživala sam šta se dešava u Americi i otkrila sam nekoliko zanimljivih stvari. Naravno, kao što očekujemo, jedna je ta da je mnogim malim preduzetnicima u Americi i širom sveta i dalje potrebno novca da se razvijaju i rade više, ili im je potreban novac tokom teškog perioda. Ali postoji potreba za sredstvima u blizini. Još nešto, ispostavlja se da ta sredstva obično ne dolaze sa mesta koja očekujete - iz banaka, preduzetničkih kapitalista, drugih organizacija i struktura - dolaze od prijatelja i porodice. Neke statistike pokazuju da 85% ili više sredstava za mala preduzeća dolazi od porodice i prijatelja. To je oko 130 milijardi dolara godišnje. To je mnogo. I treće, kad prijatelji i porodica prikupljaju novac, veoma je nezgodno, ljudi ne znaju tačno šta da traže, kako da pitaju, šta da obećaju za uzvrat, čak i kad imaju najbolje namere i žele da se zahvale ljudima koji ih podržavaju.
So to harness the power of these supportive communities in a new way and to allow entrepreneurs to decide for themselves exactly what that financial exchange should look like, exactly what fits them and the people around them, this week actually, we're quietly doing a launch of Profounder, which is a crowd funding platform for small businesses to raise what they need through investments from their friends and family. And it's investments, not donations, not loans, but investments that have a dynamic return. So the mapping of participating in the story, it actually flows with the up and down. So in short, it's a do-it-yourself tool for small businesses to raise these funds. And what you can do is go onto the site, create a profile, create investment terms in a really easy way. We make it really, really simple for me as well as anyone else who wants to use the site. And we allow entrepreneurs to share a percentage of their revenues. They can raise up to a million dollars from an unlimited number of unaccredited, unsophisticated investors -- everyday people, heaven forbid -- and they can share those returns over time -- again, whatever terms they set. As investors choose to become involved based on those terms, they can either take their rewards back as cash, or they can decide in advance to give those returns away to a non-profit. So they can be a cash, or a cause, investor. It's my hope that this kind of tool can show anybody who has an idea a path to go do what they want to do in the world and to gather the people around them that they already have, the people that know them best and that love them and want to support them, to gather them to make this happen.
Da bismo usmerili moć ovih podržavajućih društava na nov način i dozvolili preduzetnicima da sami odlučuju kako će tačno izgledati finansijska razmena, šta tačno odgovara njima i ljudima oko njih, ove nedelje tiho lansiramo "Profounder", a to je platforma preko koje mala preduzeća mogu da skupe sredstva putem investicija njihovih prijatelja i porodice. To su investicije, ne donacije ili zajmovi, investicije koje imaju dinamičan povrat. Taj novac učestvuje u priči, kreće se sa usponima i padovima. Ukratko, to je "uradi sam" sredstvo za prikupljanje fondova za mala preduzeća. Možete da odete na sajt, napravite profil, i veoma lako napravite uslove za investiciju. Napravili smo veoma, veoma lako, za mene i za bilo koga ko želi da koristi sajt. Dozvoljavamo preduzetnicima da dele procenat svoj dobitka. Mogu da skupe do milion dolara od neograničenog broja neobučenih, nestručnih investitora - svakodnevnih ljudi, zaboga - i mogu da podele dobitak tokom vremena - opet, po sopstvenim uslovima. Pošto investitori biraju da se uključe pod tim uslovima, mogu da biraju da uzmu nazad novac ili da unapred odluče da ga doniraju neprofitnom sektoru. Tako mogu biti investitori za novac ili dobru stvar. Nadam se da ovo može bilo kome sa idejom pokazati put kojim mogu ići da bi radili ono što žele i da oko sebe okupe ljude koje već imaju, ljude koji ih najbolje poznaju i vole i žele da ih podrže, da ih okupe da bi uspeli.
So that's what I'm working on now. And to close, I just want to say, look these are tools. Right now, Profounder's right at the very beginning, and it's very palpable; it's very clear to me, that it's just a vessel, it's just a tool. What we need are for people to care, to actually go use it, just like they've cared enough to use Kiva to make those connections. But the good news is I don't think I need to stand here and convince you to care -- I'm not even going to try. I don't think, even though we often hear, you know, hear the ethical and moral reasons, the religious reasons, "Here's why caring and giving will make you happier." I don't think we need to be convinced of that. I think we know; in fact, I think we know so much, and it's such a reality that we care so deeply, that in fact, what usually stops us is that we're afraid to try and to mess up, because we care so very much about helping each other and being meaningful in each other's lives.
Dakle na tome sada radim. I za kraj, pogledajte to je taj alat. Trenutno je "Profounder" na samom početku, veoma je očigledan, jasan, to je sredstvo, samo alat. Potrebno je da je ljudima stalo, da ga koriste, kao što im je bilo stalo da koriste "Kivu" i stvore te veze. Ali dobra vest je što mislim da ne moram da stojim ovde i ubeđujem vas. Neću ni pokušavati. Ne mislim, iako često čujemo znate, etičke i moralne razloge, religiozne razloge, "Eto kako vas davanje može učiniti srećnima". Mislim da nas ne treba ubeđivati u to. Mislim da znamo. Zapravo, mislim da toliko znamo, to je toliko stvarno da nam je duboko stalo, da je ustvari ono što nas sputava naš strah da pokušamo i upropastimo sve, jer nam je mnogo stalo da pomognemo i da značimo jedni drugima.
So what I think I can do today, that best thing I can give you -- I've given you my story, which is the best I can do. And I think I can remind us that we do care. I think we all already know that. And I think we know that love is resilient enough for us to get out there and try. Just a sec.
Mislim da je najbolja stvar koju danas mogu da vam dam - dala sam vam svoju priču, to je najbolje što mogu. Mogu da nas podsetim da nam je stalo. Mislim da svi to već znamo. Mislim da je ljubav dovoljno jaka da se upustimo i probamo. Samo sekund.
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Thanks.
Hvala.
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Thanks.
Hvala.
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For me, the best way to be inspired to try is to stop and to listen to someone else's story. And I'm grateful that I've gotten to do that here at TED. And I'm grateful that whenever I do that, guaranteed, I am inspired -- I am inspired by the person I am listening to. And I believe more and more every time I listen in that that person's potential to do great things in the world and in my own potential to maybe help. And that -- forget the tools, forget the moving around of resources -- that stuff's easy. Believing in each other, really being sure when push comes to shove that each one of us can do amazing things in the world, that is what can make our stories into love stories and our collective story into one that continually perpetuates hope and good things for all of us. So that, this belief in each other, knowing that without a doubt and practicing that every day in whatever you do, that's what I believe will change the world and make tomorrow better than today.
Za mene je najbolja inspiracija za pokušaj zaustaviti se i poslušati nečiju priču. I zahvalna sam što mogu to da uradim na TED-u. I zahvalna sam jer gde god da to uradim garantovano ću biti inspirisana, inspiriše me osoba koju slušam. I svaki put kad slušam, sve više verujem u potencijal te osobe da uradi velike stvari u svetu i u svoj potencijal da možda pomognem. A to - zaboravite na alate, zaboravite na protok sredstava - to je lako. Verovanje jednih u druge, sigurnost kad je najteže da svako od nas može učiniti velike stvari u svetu, to naše priče puni ljubavlju i našu zajedničku priču čini onom koja neprestano podstiče nadu i dobre stvari za sve nas. Mislim da vera u ljude, bespogovorna svest o tome i praktikovanje toga u svakodnevnom životu, mogu promeniti svet i učiniti sutrašnjicu boljom danas.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
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