Omnipreneurship by Amr Al-Dabbagh

Author:Amr Al-Dabbagh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Free Press

DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF HONEY

To break free of scarcity’s ropes, we have to release the notion that little or no money is a problem. What if we replace the idea of money with other kinds of currency? 4

One of my favorite examples of how the power of a good idea can generate money is Grameen Bank. Grameen began with twenty-seven dollars and an idea from Dr. Muhammad Yunus. During a famine in Bangladesh in the 1970s, Dr. Yunus visited a village where he met a very poor woman who made stools out of bamboo. She had no money to buy materials, so he loaned her, as well as some of her neighbors, a total of twenty-seven dollars from his own pocket. To his surprise, the woman and the other villagers all paid him back on time, so he decided to offer more “microloans” to more poor people in Bangladesh. In the process he proved that the poor are every bit as creditworthy as the rich, due in part to the power of peer pressure; neighbors and relatives keep tabs on each other to ensure that the loans are repaid. 5

As of October 2011, Grameen bank had more than 8 million borrowers—97 percent of them women—in more than 81,000 villages in Bangladesh. So far these people have repaid well over 90 percent of their loans. 6 Equally impressive, their inspired approach has led to development of multiple self-sustaining platforms in financial services, health, and agriculture. Grameen Bank has encouraged commercial banks in many developing countries to take up microcredit lending as well. The bank has attracted money, collaborators, imitators, media, financial support, and more.

Grameen began with the power of an idea—help the poorest reach their full potential by connecting them with financial services. Grameen has since secured hundreds of millions of dollars of loans for its beneficiaries.

Another kind of currency is expertise, such as the consulting expertise offered by Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (RAPCAN), a South African Stars grantee. RAPCAN assists children who must testify against their sexual offenders in court. RAPCAN makes sure that children are properly fed, prepared to give their testimony in court, and receive therapeutic follow-up services. RAPCAN makes policy recommendations to the South African government to improve the children’s experience of their rights. Through their expertise—their “honey”—they have attracted a robust lineup of resource partnerships to amplify their efforts.

Bringing people together is another kind of currency. Hosting events like the Global Competitiveness Forum, the Philanthropreneurship Forum, and the Stars Impact Awards is one of my favorite ways of doing this (I’ll say more about this in chapter 11, “Share Your Story”). Obviously, it takes money to stage big events, but time and again I have found that the cost of not making such an investment is higher still, because word of mouth is literally worth gold.

When we announced the Global Competitiveness Forum, many called us crazy. “What does a competitiveness forum have to do with foreign investment?” they asked. They wondered about budgets.

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