Muhammad Yunus

Yesterday I had the pleasure of listening to Muhammad Yunus speak at a luncheon sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Houston. I was inspired, to say the least, by the simplicity of Yunus’ solution for ending poverty. More so, I was awestruck by the fact that he carried out the goal of establishing microcredit, to a immensely successful degree, towards helping impoverished people in Bangladeshi villages bring themselves out of destitution. (Microcredit has since been brought to many other areas of the world.)

I left the event full of ideas about creating a social business. I have to admit that the idea was quite foreign to me, as  an American, because after all, we’re capitalists here – our goal is to turn a profit; helping others is secondary, if that notion exists at all in the typical business plan. Social businesses operate with the goal of “banking on human relationships, banking on trust.” Human relationships and trust aren’t exactly the hallmarks of American business, so how could a social business thrive in the U.S.? I started thinking of the social needs that I see or hear about everyday here in Houston, and which strengths of my own that I could bring to the equation of “solving” a widespread problem.