Reading Reflection No. 1

Twenty-Seven Dollars and a Dream: How Muhammad Yunus Changed the World and What It Cost Him, Katharine Esty
1) You read about an entrepreneur:

·       What surprised you the most?
How unjust it was for Muhummad Yunus’s own Prime Minister to remove him from his position of being managing director of Grameen, after he spent his lifetime dedicated to ending poverty.

·       What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? How dedicated Yunus was to accomplish his vision of ending poverty while striving to address social problems that governments have failed to solve. His entire life is dedicated in changing the world in a positive way.

·       What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? It would have to be that Muhammad’s life was all about work, so his family wasn’t a priority. He did not see his daughter Monica for years and didn’t really have close relationships. Everyone has different priorities, but as an individual that cares the most about my family, it is difficult for me to relate to his mindset of work being everything.

·       Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?Although it could be arguably not a failure due to it being so unjust, but he was charged with fraud and wrongdoing of charging excessively high interest rates, by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. His supporters protested, and 3.7 million borrowers signed a petition requesting that Muhammad stays at the bank. He acknowledged that he was on a downhill battle he appealed to the Supreme Court, he commented on the importance of maintaining independence of Grameen, but then after being rejected by the Supreme Court, he ended up resigning from his position.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

He is confident and completely dedicated to his work of eliminating poverty, he has the ability to communicate his beliefs and make an impact on the people he reaches, he is innovative and able to adapt to changes, his motivating speeches about microcredit led to recognition across the globe, and he is extremely powerful by nature (this was shown and began in his childhood.)

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. There wasn’t anything necessarily confusing, but something that shocked me was his idea and reasoning of microloans. My uncle has a company that does the same thing for people in Israel, but it seems to be mostly for his benefit of earning interest. Muhammud Yunus began loaning money so the poor villagers he encountered who wanted to start small businesses could. It was shown that a small amount of money could inspire and go a very long way for many people.  

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

Would you do anything different?
– I would ask this question because Muhammad seems to be confident in all of his actions, so I was wondering if there’s anything he regrets deep down.  

Although you frequently expressed mistrust of governments, what led you to decide to work with the government of Bangladesh?
– I would ask this because this led to Sheikh Hasina targeting Yunus’s life work.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

His opinion of hard work is most likely, through ACTION. He began with a vision to end poverty, he did endless research which he communicated to countless people, he began with organizations and he built a team that had rigorous training and shared the same vision as his, and he was willing to adapt to change around him. All of what he accomplished was surrounded around his ability to act on his vision. I personally believe that talking about something and actually doing it are two completely different thing, and acting on a vision, regardless of what the act is, is the highest form of hard work.