Leila Janah didn’t have the money to start her company, but she didn’t let that hold her back. She paid her way through Harvard by cleaning toilets, serving cocktails, and tutoring wealthy students while pitching her sustainable business model to anyone who would listen. Since the inception of her company, Samasource–named as one of Fast Company’s most innovative companies in 2016–Leila has employed nearly 10,000 people and helped nearly 35,000 people permanently move above the poverty line. Her customers are some of the world’s biggest companies such as Google, Microsoft, Walmart, eBay and she’s been profiled in The New York Times, WIRED, Forbes, and Inc. Leila also founded LXMI (pronounced luxe-me) which is the first social impact beauty brand to be sold at Sephora. Meet the founder, author, and social entrepreneur who believes in reversing poverty one job at a time in this episode of Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu.
PULLED QUOTES
1. “As an entrepreneur, probably the most important attribute is not quitting.” [3:59]
2.“The only real power we have in the world is choosing our response.” [10:45]
3.“The choice to take that painful experience and mold it into something positive for the world is I think the deepest kind of healing we can have as humans.” [11:40]
4.“The only real thing that matters is love.Loving people and being loved yourself.” [17:55]
5.“It’s important that we don’t absolve ourselves of a moral duty to act. We all have that duty to act. You don’t have to be flawless.” [26:25]
6.“I think the most worthwhile, worthy things in life are just the result of a lot of painful, enduring failure.” [30:12]
7.“I think there’s a certain vulnerability that comes from not having a lot of stuff.” [44:13]
8.“Talent is equally distributed and opportunity is not.” [48:02]
SHOW NOTES
Leila walks through how grit was baked into her upbringing. [3:27]
Leila talks about post-traumatic growth and how you can build resilience. [6:30]
Tom and Leila dive into her personal narrative and how she found refuge in social impact.[8:38]
Leila opens up about her struggle with depression and finding nourishment for her soul. [12:55]
Leila takes you through the 4-step process that you can use to keep yourself grounded. [17:00]
Leila explains the benefits of “the pause.” [19:11]
Tom and Leila discuss how she helps people in the gig economy. [22:46]
Leila debunks the myth that people who work in service of humanity are flawless. [25:28]
Leila shines the light on profit versus non-profit and why she chose to launch a benefit corporation.[27:02]
Leila shares valuable about what she looks for in team members. [30:03]
Tom and Leila go deep on the first steps that she took to start her business. [34:42]
Leila recalls living in Ghana and the reverse culture shock she experienced coming home. [40:36]
Leila talks about the reality of scarcity and the power of unleashing untapped potential.[48:00]
Leila defines the impact that she wants to have on the world. [50:23]
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
BOOKS
Give Work: Reversing Poverty One Job at a Time – [2:27]
Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy- [6:53]
Scarcity: The New Science of Having Less and How It Defines Our Lives – [48:29]
ORGANIZATIONS
Samasource- [1:01]
LXMI- [2:22]
Sama Hope – [12:23]
Sama School – [22:41]
PEOPLE
Sheryl Sandberg – [6:51]
Ben Horowitz – [30:05]
Muhammad Yunus- [36:23]
TERMINOLOGY
B-Corporation – [29:03]
BONUS
Leila’s Booklist on Medium –
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