Creating a world Without Poverty: Social Business And The Future Of Capitalism

Muhammed Yanus

Emmanuel Effiong-Bright (With additional excerpts from the book)

Binding Cover: Hardcover

Publish Date: January 2008

Price on Manna Books: N5,226

Contact: 01-4618516, 08033047457

"By giving poor people the power to help themselves, Dr. Yunus has offered them something far more valuable than a plate of food- security in its most fundamental form."

'Muhammad Yunus is a practical visionary who has improved the lives of millions of people in his native Bangladesh and elsewhere in the world."

These two quotes may look and sound very apt but they still do not fully capture the story and ideals of the institution called Muhammad Yunus. Yes, the relatively unknown lecturer from Bangladesh has today become a phenomenon in innovative economics. In this thrilling book-Creating a world Without Poverty, the Nobel Prize winner goes beyond micro credit to pioneer the idea of social business -a completely new way to use the creative vibrancy of business to tackle social problems from poverty and pollution to inadequate health care and lack of education.

This great book describes how Yunus-in partnership with some of the world's most visionary business leaders- has launched the world's first purposely-designed social businesses. From collaborating with Danone to produce affordable, nutritious yoghurt for the malnourished in Bangladesh to building eye care hospitals that will save thousands of poor people from blindness, "Creating a World Without Poverty" offers a glimpse of the amazing future Yunus forecasts for a planet transformed by thousands of social businesses. Yunus's "Next Big Idea" offers a pioneering model for nothing less than a new, more humane form of capitalism.

The book is set in three chapters:

The Promise of Social Business

The Grameen Experiment and

Muhammad Yunus was born in Chittatong, a seaport in Bangladesh. The third of 14 children, he was educated at Dhaka University and was awarded Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University. He then served as chairman of the Economics Department at Chittagong University before devoting his life to providing financial and social services to the poorest of the poor. He is the founder and managing director of Grameen Bank and the author of the bestselling Banker to the Poor. Both Yunus and Grameen Bank are winners of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

This book is an inspiration to anyone who believes in the power of ideas to transform business and life. It is in itself a statement of believe that anyone, irrespective of geographical location or race, can change the world, one project at a time. You can change the world by radically changing the way you run your personal or employer's business. If you are looking for inspiration on how to start, this book stands highly recommended.

To fail means to be unsuccessful at something or to not achieve our goal. To fail is to not turnout as expected. Failure causes disappointment and frustration; it's a terrible experience when one fails. Yet failure is a normal part of the human experience because our world is not a perfect world. While we were not designed for failure and our whole system goes just wrong because things are not working right. We must learn to handle failure just like the other side of day we have night, for heat we have cold, for summer there is winter, and on the other side of a mountain there is likely a valley so failure works with success.

If you know about success but you don't know about failure, your knowledge of success is not yet complete. Failure is just the other side of the coin. Most of us prepare for success but we never prepare for failure; yet failure is far more common than success. In fact, it is not the absence of the challenges of failure that makes people to succeed. It is knowing how to manage failure that makes people to succeed. So, don't ever assume that just because things seem to be working out in somebody's life they do not have their own fair share of challenges. The truth is successful people are usually those who have learnt to succeed in spite of their challenges; how to turn their obstacle into stepping stone to achieve their goals.

High achievers always turn their failure into fertilizer and they move ahead anyway. I believe that the seed of vision, the seed of the future grows best in the manure of failure. You succeed or fail depending on your knowledge of how to manage failure. People who mismanage failure always blame others; they label themselves also as failures and expect that they will fail again. People who mismanage failure usually repeat the same approach even when it is not working. People who usually mismanage failure don't challenge tradition they do things because that is the way it has always be done and for God sake we should not expect different results when we continue to do things the way we have always done them.

And then I found out that people who mismanage failure give up easily. You need to ask the question: do you usually blame other people when things don't work out? I read in a book by a wise man many years ago; you are not yet a failure until you blame someone else. Today as you take responsibility for whatever may have been wrong, God will give you the wisdom to know what to do to move to the next level of success.

I declare that today marks the end of frustration and depression and confusion and worry and anxiety in your life. In the place of worry receive hope; in the place of sadness receive joy, in the place of mourning you will have cause for dancing today. As you stand up and tell yourself that you will try again and you do try again, your attempt will be a successful one. God bless you.

You will succeed!