...one cannot but wonder how an environment can make people despair and sit idle and then, by changing the conditions, one can transform the same people into matchless performers.
Interpretation
Changing one's environment can unlock potential that leads to high achievement.
This quote by Muhammad Yunus emphasizes the profound impact that environmental conditions can have on human behavior and capability. It suggests that when individuals are placed in an empowering environment that fosters motivation and support, they can achieve exceptional results that would have seemed impossible in a less supportive context.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a motivational speech to encourage teams to improve their work environment.
Civilization has given us enormous successes: going to the moon, technology. But then this is the civilisation that took us to debt, environmental crisis, every single crisis. We need a civilization where we say goodbye to these things.
What I did not know yet about hunger, but would find out over the next twenty-one years, was that brilliant theorists of economics do not find it worthwhile to spend time discussing issues of poverty and hunger. They believe that these will be resolved when general economic prosperity increases. These economists spend all their talents detailing the process of development and prosperity, but rarely reflect on the origin and development of poverty and hunger. A a result, poverty continues.
People.. were poor not because they were stupid or lazy. They worked all day long, doing complex physical tasks. They were poor because the financial institution in the country did not help them widen their economic base.
Some people think that poor people are lazy. Actually, it takes a lot of work to survive when you are dirt-poor.
Once poverty is gone, we'll need to build museums to display its horrors to future generations. They'll wonder why poverty continued so long in human society - how a few people could live in luxury while billions dwelt in misery, deprivation and despair.
By simply capitalizing on core strengths and knowledge, companies and entrepreneurs can engage in an emerging business model that will enable them to create - and demonstrate - real, sustainable social impact in society.
I get up every morning determined to both change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes, this makes planning the day difficult.
I would venture to guess that the biggest reason creative types don't produce isn't because they don't have vision... or talent... in most cases, it's a lack of discipline.
The things a man has to have are hope and confidence in himself against odds, and sometimes he needs somebody, his pal or his mother or his wife or God, to give him that confidence.
He used to tell me, 'Do what you like to do. It'll probably turn out to be what you do best.
When I was growing up, I was told you could be anything you want to be, but I didn't really believe that because you couldn't be president. Like, I knew that; we never had a black president.
I'd rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.
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