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Entrepreneur Wins Nobel Peace Prize.

What will you achieve in your lifetime?

Roger Hamilton talks us through the Story of one man’s Journey through the Wealth Spectrum. Learn more about yourself at The Wealth Dynamics Workshop with Topher Morrison.

At the end of 2008, as the global crisis was across all the media, I met Muhammad Yunus in Singapore (You can watch our conversation on Youtube). Yunus is a champion of micro-financing, a self-made millionaire and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Here is a wonderful example of a living rainbow who has attracted his own pot of gold. While there are many people we could use as an example of stepping through the wealth spectrum, I’ve picked Yunus as my example as his story brings together not just one man’s journey, but a sign of the changing financial times we are in.

The Wealth Spectrum - Red Survivor Level

In 1976, Yunus was working with the Bangladesh government on social projects when on a visit to one of the poorest villages of Jobra he came across entrepreneurial women struggling at survivor level to run their businesses. They were borrowing from loan sharks at sky-high interest rates, and he saw an opportunity to support them by being the middle man.

The Wealth Spectrum - Orange Worker Level

While keeping his job, he experimented with his own money, using US$27 to make his first loan to 42 women. When they paid him back with interest, he knew he had found a profitable way to help people move out of poverty. With little of his own resources, he put in his time visiting Bangladesh banks to tap into their flow, and finally persuaded Janata Bank to loan him enough to lend to more women, and extend his project.

The Wealth Spectrum - Yellow Player Level

It took seven years of work as the middleman between banks and the small entrepreneurs for Yunus to build up a trusted reputation in Bangladesh as the micro-financing man. By 1983, he had 28,000 micro-loan members, and it was time for him to establish his own enterprise, which he called Grameen Bank (which means ‘Village Bank’ in Bangladeshi).

The Wealth Spectrum - Green Performer Level

Yunus moved from being the prime driver of his mission to now growing Grameen Bank as the leader in micro-financing in Bangladesh. The bank operated a unique system where the bankers went to the member in their villages and they worked on loans secured on trust not assets, with each member meeting weekly with other members and the loan officer in their village to support each other. This system has meant that, as the western financial institutions were collapsing in the west in 2008, micro-financing continued to grow.

The Wealth Spectrum - Blue Conductor Level

Seven years after Yunus had launched Grameen Bank, the company was operating successfully, and in 1990, Yunus moved from Performer to Conductor. He launched a number of companies aligned to his mission to support the poor, including Grameen Telecom, Grameen Krishi (agriculture), Grameen Motsho (fisheries), Grameen Knitwear and Grameen Software. Today, Grameen has annual revenues of $100 million and has loaned over $8 billion.

The Wealth Spectrum - Indigo Trustee Level

In 1994, Yunus received the Independence Day Award, the highest award in Bangladesh and in 1998 Grameen won the World Habitat Award for its work in low cost housing. Yunus began to campaign on the merits of micro-financing not just for Grameen in Bangladesh but now globally. As with all Trustees, his focus moved from competitive capital at Blue level to universal benefit at Indigo level. By 2006 he had become a trusted spokesperson on micro-financing globally. In that year he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on micro-financing.

The Wealth Spectrum - Violet Composer Level

Today, Yunus has moved from a trustee of micro-financing to a composer of our future. In his book “Social Business” he lays out a new corporate structure that allows companies to operate as social enterprises and still attract capital and provide shareholder returns. Today, 94% of Grameen Bank is owned by the borrowers, and for every dollar in loans, members hold two dollars in deposits. The model that he is pioneering, he is also practicing.

It has been 33 years for Yunus to move through each level of the spectrum from red to violet, and by persevering through the years the impact he will leave will be far greater than the money he made.

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