Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus is a nobel prize winning economist, and founder of the Grameen bank, a microcredit and micro loan institution serving underprivileged entrepreneurs. What surprised me the most while reading about him was that a lot of his early work was helping women gain access to resources, something that just struck me as pleasantly surprising to read about a man in the 20th century. I admired his mountain climbing mentality, how at the top of each peak he already began preparing for his next climb. This was in contrast to his lack of diving into the lives he was helping - while I appreciate his work, it seems a little impersonal, though he was definitely involved with those he helped, it didn’t seem like they were his purpose or motivation.

From my reading it seems to me that Yunus is a focused idealist, with everything he has done stemming from his understanding of the world. I believe that this was his primary motivation in his pursuits, however that may also be his most lackluster quality. I was a little confused about the development of his ideologies throughout the book, it didn’t seem to me like much care was given to the personal aspect of the professional development which saw Yunus transform the face of the banking industry for small-scale, underserved opportunists. 

MY first question for Yunus would be if he could focus on one impact group as a priority over any other, which would it be? It seems to me that the answer would be South Central Asian and Indian subregion communities, however I can’t quite say that now, in his later years, he would want to see work done more in parts of the globe that he hasn’t quite absorbed. My second question for him would be if he would take it all back? If he had the opportunity, would he start from square one, and enjoy the journey back to where he is, or is he happy that it’s all behind him now and that he can work on continuing his success?

I believe that Yunus shared a millennial mindset: work smarter, not harder. In working smarter you are more efficient, and efficiency is key to bringing access to resources to underserved portions of the population. The beauty of Yunus’ work is that in my mind it justifies itself. Whatever reasons Yunus had to develop the way he did in hindsight, I believe he wouldn’t have changed things, and would have kept them just the way they are.