Muhammad Yunus Quotes

Type I social business: The business objective is to overcome poverty, or one or more problems (such as education, health, technology access, and environment) that threaten people and society — not to maximize profit. The company will attain financial and economic sustainability. Investors get back only their investment amount. No dividend is given beyond the return of the original investment. When the investment amount is paid back, profit stays with the company for expansion and improvement. The company will be environmentally conscious. The workforce gets market wage with better-than-standard working conditions. Do it with joy!!!

This is a badly distorted picture of a human being. As even a moment’s reflection suggests, human beings are not money-making robots. The essential fact about humans is that they are multidimensional beings. Their happiness comes from many sources, not just from making money. And yet economists have built their whole theory of business on the assumption that human beings do nothing in their economic lives besides pursue selfish interests. The theory concludes that the optimal result for society will occur when each individual’s search for selfish benefit is given free rein. This interpretation of human beings denies any role to other aspects of life — political, social, emotional, spiritual, environmental, and so on.

I found it increasingly difficult to teach elegant theories of economics and the supposedly perfect workings of the free market in the university classroom while needless death was ravaging Bangladesh.

Approximately the size of Florida, Bangladesh has a population of about 120 million.

Perhaps it will also serve as a reminder to those who think they have grand and global solutions to the challenges of the world that it is often through the grass roots, by listening to those whose lives they seek to change, that true and sustainable solutions, in tune with the land and the human spirit, will be found. I

We can think about a social business as a selfless business whose purpose is to bring an end to a social problem. In this kind of business, the company makes a profit — but no one takes the profit. Because the company is dedicated entirely to the social cause, the whole idea of making personal profit is removed from this business. The owner can take back over a period of time only the amount invested.