13A - Reading Reflection

Twenty-Seven Dollars and a Dream: How Muhammad Yunus Changed the World and What It Cost Him, by Katherine Esty

1. After reading about Muhammad Yunus, what surprised me the most was how after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, he ignored all the advice he was receiving regarding how to prepare for his lecture. He was aware that the whole world would be watching, but he had so much confidence in his ability to communicate his ideas that he didn’t need a month or days to prepare. You would think after being awarded such a meaningful prize, you would prepare with enough time in advance to practice and perfect the lecture.

Furthermore, what I admired the most about Yunus was his decision of selecting nine village women who were on the Grameen Bank’s Board of Directors instead of some of the top executives to represent the bank at the ceremonies in Oslo. This showed his humility for the poor, illiterate women who had never traveled outside of Bangladesh. Through these actions, he proved his passion for helping these women and bringing representation with him that gave a deeper meaning to his goals.

Unfortunately, I admire everything Yunus has accomplished from working hard for a change he wants to see, to loaning poor women money while empowering women in a Muslim nation, to winning the Nobel Peace Prize to founding more than 25 companies in diverse industries. All of his accomplishments have positively impacted the world today and there isn’t anything I admired less than something else.

At times, Yunus did experience adversity and failure, for example, Yunus joined the new government’s Planning Commission in Bangladesh, but his role wasn’t what he expected. After trying to get more meaningful responsibility, and failing, Yunus quit. This did not stop Yunus from reaching his goals so he went back to the Economics Department of Chittagong University, now as department head. While working at Chittagong, he founded the Chittagong University Rural Development Project, through which students earned academic credit while assisting local poor people.

2. I believe some competencies Yunus exhibited was the ability to make more aware the amount of famine that exists around the world, especially in countries like Bangladesh. He was able to push through the hard times of when the world wasn’t aware of the famine and poverty, but with all his different jobs, he’s learned that success follows had work.

3. One part of the reading that was confusing to me was how, as a banker, he was able to loan money to poor Bangladesh women who had no money or credit. Although Yunus began this many years ago, it isn’t clear to me how things were approved and how he “got the ball rolling”.

4. If I were able to ask two questions to Yunus, the first would be “How did you stay motivated to help poor women when times were challenging regarding the amount of resources available for help?” I would ask this question because I know that with anything we do, there are always negative moments or obstacles that come in the way and I would like to know more about specific challenges and how he overcame them.

The second question would be, “How would you feel after every award you received, since you received so many before the Nobel Peace Prize? Do you think receiving these awards motivated you more? If so, what changed.”

5. I think Yunus’ opinion of hard work was to always put in all your effort into the things that you seek a passion for, especially if they will help others around you. I believe that Yunus did not care what others thought he should do, he accomplished his goals because of his strong beliefs and sticking with them.