DialogueMagazine

Interview Prof. Yunus 49 Yunus: I find it a good strategy for myself. If you worry about the big problems, so many billions of people under poverty, so many billions of people hungry, so many billions sick, you feel the problem is so big I can’t do anything about it. So I don’t do anything, because the problem is too big. I only do something when I see I can do something. Either I have to become such a big person that I can change the whole world, billions of people. I can’t get there, that’s something I can’t even imagine that I’ll get there. So if I make the problem very small, if I don’t talk about billions of poor people, I talk about four poor people. I can help four people to get out of poverty, I have the capacity. If I can do that then I have learnt a process. In the process I learn a lot more and my process becomes more efficient. Then I can make it bigger and bigger and bigger. So I started small because it promised to be successful. I don’t need a lot of money to do it. I don’t need so many consultation processes, so many meetings to agree, disagree, and fight over the issues. I can go ahead and do it, and show it. And if you show the result people won’t debate it anymore. So this is important that we make a beginning to the learning process. It begins and it can hold the possibility of becoming big. And I always tell people that this is sort of developing the seed. If you have developed the seed you can plant it millions of times. And it could be done. But at the same time broader issues are also important. My voice becomes more and more important when I do it on the ground. Then I can influence the decisions because people will listen to me because I have already done something. So if I do it on the ground I establish the credibility for myself, that "yes, I understand what I am talking about". Then it’s easier to talk about the governance issue. So I would say in any case starting small, gives you a great confidence. Your creativity has worked. It’s good to feel that I have lots of creativity and I can go to sleep untroubled. If I know I have done something I look at it: This I have done. So gradually I become more and more confident and I become more skilled in that. So that taste of success has to be inside to feel I have done that. So I think that could be a part of our process of growing up. Knowing what the world is, what I can do, what power I have. Knowing my power is a very important process of self- discovery. Who I am. How much I have. If I know that I have a whole huge bundle of energy, of creativity, I will not be satisfied with little things. Somebody was saying that nothing big comes out of a small dream. So if I know that I have a big power I’ll dream big things so that I can get it done.