In his address to graduates at MIT’s 2008 Commencement, Muhammad Yunus speaks about the importance of following your instinct in the absence of a road-map:“I had no idea whether my life would someday be relevant to anyone else's. But in the mid-seventies, out of frustration with the terrible economic situation in Bangladesh I decided to see if I could make myself useful to one poor person a day in the village next door to the university campus where I was teaching.”
“I found myself in an unfamiliar situation. Out of necessity I had to find a way out. Since I did not have a road-map, I had to fall back on my basic instinct to do that. At any moment I could have withdrawn myself from my unknown path, but I did not. I stubbornly went on to find my own way. Luckily, at the end, I found it. That was microcredit and Grameen Bank.”
The entire Commencement address is posted at:
‘The Upside Down Thinking of Muhammad Yunus, Stories for Speakers and Writers, 10 June 2008.
Related:
Muhammad Yunus on Poverty
Muhammad Yunus on Changing the World
Muhammad Yunus: Success by Unconventional Wisdom
Dr Geoff Pound
Image: “I had to fall back on my basic instinct.”
