Where Taliey is from

London, England, United Kingdom

Kampala, Uganda

 

Interview

What was your dream when you were a kid? What was the reason?

I wanted to work. I wasn’t sure as what. But I always saw myself in a big, very cool office with lots of great people around me.

 

What was your dream when you were 18 years old? What was the reason?

I wanted to be a teacher. I was in Law school and hated it, I taught at a rural school in Uganda and loved it. Having the opportunity to share knowledge, ignite curiosity as well as guide, encourage and support teenage girls really resonated with me.

 

What made you start thinking about social entrepreneurship/social enterprises? When was that?

When I worked for the rural school I held a fundraiser to build new classrooms and improve the living conditions of the school. It was a great success. However, when I went back there a year later and then another year nothing had changed or improved since I had left. That’s when I realized charity was not sustainable. Growing up in a business family I was always taught to be able to solve my own problems and I knew the school needed that capacity. When I looked into different ways to help them learn how to help themselves I stumbled upon social business. It makes no sense to earn money just to earn more money, it has not done much good for the world. Doing business for good makes much more sense to me.

 

How much do you think social entrepreneurs play an important role in the world?

What would you say to future social entrepreneurs / those who are interested in social entrepreneurs?

I think the world needs us. The world needs us to be social entrepreneurs, support social entrepreneurs and encourage more to get on the movement. Greed and capitalism have left the world in an inequitable and beleaguered state, social entrepreneurship has the ability to be the bridge between world and forge a new path to a better future. Everyone can do good, everyone can do better and if they chose to, they can do better by doing good!

 

What is your favorite quote? Who said that quote?

“No one ever made a million bucks by being cautious or timid or reasonable.” — Eli Broad

“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there”-Yogi Berra

“Feel the fear and do it anyway”- Susan Jeffers

 

Who Taliey is

Taliey and I have been working together for almost a year because we founded Musana Carts, so what I am going to write about her is from my observations as a colleague.

Taliey is very organized person…except in her room. She loves planning everything and it makes her very comfortable when she knows not only what she is going to do, but also what others are going to do. When you plan something, you need to know everything first, otherwise it is impossible to organize everything well, right? Taliey can do that…except in her room.

When you work with Taliey, you can visualize how the inside of her brain works. It is like she plays TETRIS…except in her room. She has so much stuff so her room is only an exception. When you travel with her, believe me, it will be a disaster. Don’t get me wrong, spending time with her and going on a trip with her are so much fun and you never get bored. What I mean is that the disaster comes one day before your departure day. I hope it explains a lot.

Taliey is very strong and powerful. As proof, she has been named as one of Africa’s top 5 women innovators by the World Economic Forum this year for Musana Carts. I would describe Taliey as an ‘anchor.’ It sounds like she is physically strong and powerful and good at stopping something, but that is not what I meant. It is true that Taliey is strong but it is more ’soft strong’ than ‘hard strong.’ Imagine you were on a ship. What if you did not have an anchor, would you accelerate your ship? First of all, would you go on a voyage without the anchor? I guess your answer would be “NO.” You would accelerate your ship because you knew you had an anchor. You would go on a voyage because you knew the anchor was with you. You can do what you want to do because Taliey is with you. You can be sure that you are doing right because Taliey is with you. Taliey is the one that you can absolutely count on in your life. I have been  counting on her for a year since I met her. I am very comfortable and relieved when I am with Taliey. Her powerfulness is not ‘top down’ as a bossy type but ‘bottom up’ to encourage others. Her strength has depth to empower others.

Taliey is a very knowledgeable person. She always knows the up-to-date information and is aware of what is going on in the world by reading articles. She behaves as if she were an information stalker, which means that she is really good at research. Talk to her and discuss politics and business. You will love it and find out how amazing Taliey is.

I guess you are getting to know Taliey but you should also know that she is so chill and funny. She is such an optimistic person so you do not get stressed by her. I am also a big fan of the way she talks. Especially when she shares something exciting that happened to her.The stories become dramatic with the ‘up and down’ tone of her voice like a roller coaster. It is definitely entertainment for me whenever I talk to her.

Every person has even a tiny part of competitiveness, but Taliey is the most competitive person I have ever met in my life. You can play a game or sport with her, but be careful. She will try to DESTROY you. Just so you know.

Taliey and I are not only colleagues but also movie buddies. Taliey grew up with her brothers so our taste of movies matches, for example, Star Wars, Avengers, Deadpool, Captain America, Batman vs Superman, Jason Bourne, the Big Short etc. She knew tips behind those stories so it was so much fun watching the movies with her.

 

Awesome Episode

Taliey is so sweet. As a part of her team, I need to improve my English and she has helped me many times as a native English speaker. One exercise I do with her for that is writing correction. I write what happened to me in a day with a few sentences and Taliey corrects grammatical errors and wrong description I make. She has done it no matter how busy she is and how tired she is because we usually do it when she has time, even though she has so many other things to do. In the end, the sentences I write became beautiful ones with Taliey’s help. I was so surprised by the dramatic change in my writing. She is my English teacher.

Manon, Taliey and I went to Kampala, Uganda, for our project in February, 2016. That is where Taliey is from so she introduced her family and friends to us there. We had already spent 6 months together before that but I saw another side, completely new side, of Taliey. She looked happier than she was in San Francisco. Of course her family and friends are her origin so it makes sense. I just mean that Taliey is a family and friends lover. I knew that she always keeps in touch with them and updates them on what is happening with her, but in Kampala I was a witness to the fact that Taliey, her family, and her friends are connected with strong, strong ties. It was very beautiful.

 

 

The Power of MSE

What Taliey is holding is a symbol called “go-en(ご縁)”, which means ‘fate’, ’destiny’ and ’special tie.’

I believe that it is meant to be that we met in San Francisco! I studied Social Entrepreneurship with Taliey for a year, saying “We will make the world a better place.” I would love to spend the rest of my life with MSEs (Master of Social Entrepreneurship; my classmates) until the very day I die. They have already completely changed my life.

At the same time, however, I also think that we should not be together all the time, because that is not the reason why we learned Social Entrepreneurship. That is not how we will deliver the impact we want to give to society and to the world.

I think MSEs are like dandelions. We were seeded at the first day at Hult and we bloomed on our graduation day. Our mission is that we spread all over the world like dandelions and seed the future, the next generation, from each place where each of us has landed.

本当にありがとう(Honto ni Arigato-); Thank you very very much for everything!! The world needs you! Let’s make the world a better place together!!