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anti-perfectionism

Ms. Provost said those in her program at U.C. Davis often displayed symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder — another risk for perfectionists. They couldn’t bear a messy desk. They found it nearly impossible to leave a job half-done, to do the next day. Some put in ludicrously long hours redoing tasks, chasing an ideal only they could see.

As an experiment, Ms. Provost had members of the group slack off on purpose, against their every instinct. “This was mostly in the context of work,” she said, “and they seem like small things, because what some of them considered failure was what most people would consider no big deal.”

Leave work on time. Don’t arrive early. Take all the breaks allowed. Leave the desk a mess. Allow yourself a set number of tries to finish a job; then turn in what you have.

“And then ask: Did you get punished? Did the university continue to function? Are you happier?” Ms. Provost said. “They were surprised that yes, everything continued to function, and the things they were so worried about weren’t that crucial.”

The British have a saying that encourages people to show their skills while mocking the universal fear of failure: Do your worst.

If you can’t tolerate your worst, at least once in a while, how true to yourself can you be?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/health/04mind.html?em&ex=1197003600&en=7bfaff2e98a5ddda&ei=5087%0A

A social entrepreneur

Economic theory missed the most thrilling opportunity to change the fate of the world by completely ignoring the number and power of the people who are more interested in social gains than personal financial gains, and those passionately interested in making the world a better place to live in, rather than remain narrowly focused on their own personal benefits.

By restricting the driving force of the market to narrow self-interest, economics also missed the greatest opportunity to become a truly social science and escape from being a cut and dry dollar-and-cent science. Nobody doubts that an entrepreneur can set up a pharmaceutical company to make a big profit for himself or herself. But it can be equally plausible that a person sets up a pharmaceutical company to bring quality medicine at the lowest price possible so that even the poorest family can afford it. If economics could envisage two types of entrepreneurs, personal-gain driven and social-objective-driven, it would not only be more realistic, but it would have helped the world solve many of the problems that profit-driven market doesn't solve today.

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He or she competes in the market place with all other competitors inspired by a set of social objectives. This is the basic reason for his being in the business.
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He may earn personal profit as well. This personal profit may range from zero to a significantly large amount, even larger than his personal-gain-driven competitor. But in his case, personal profit is a secondary consideration, rather than the prime consideration. On the other hand a personal-profit driven entrepreneur may contribute in achieving some social objectives. But this will be a by-product of his business, or a secondary consideration in his business. This will not make him a social entrepreneur.
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The higher the social impact per dollar invested the higher will be the market rating of the social entrepreneur. Here 'market' will consist of the potential investors who are looking for opportunities to invest their money in social-objective-driven enterprises. Social investment dollars will move from low social impact enterprises to higher impact enterprises, from general impact enterprises to specific and visible impact enterprises, from traditional social enterprises to highly innovative and efficient enterprises.

Social-objective driven investors will need a separate (social) stock market, separate rating agencies, separate financial institutions, social mutual funds, and social venture capitals, etc. Almost everything that we have for profit-driven enterprises will be needed for social-objective-driven enterprises, such as, audit firms, due diligence and impact assessment methodologies, regulatory framework, standardization, etc., only in a different context, and with different methodologies.

In terms of cost recovery a SE can work within a scale ranging from zero cost recovery to 100 per cent cost recovery and even far beyond cost recovery. If a SE distributes food to the hungry, he or she is operating at zero level of cost recovery. If he provides health services and charges a fee which covers a part of his cost, he is operating at a positive point on the cost recovery scale. Once he reaches 100 per cent cost recovery, he becomes a market compatible or sustainable social entrepreneur (mSE). This is the most critical point on the cost-recovery scale. If a SE can stay on the right side of this point he can become a legitimate player in the market place. He can grow as much as he wishes and has the capacity to manage. He can draw on the resources of the market. The more the SEs are in the category of mSEs, the more powerful they become as a business community. They can start accessing the trillions of dollars of market capitalisation money, part of which will find the mSEs just the right kind of investment.

Overcoming evil with good:

The Commonwealth can set example in massive expansion of financial services for the poor to create self-employment and for preparing the poor to bring the benefits of globalisation to their homes. It can help the member nations to open up telecom and IT sector and bring these services to the poor. It can set example in preparing the youth of the poor families for the knowledge economy and open up doors to quality education and work experience. In the backdrop of September 11, doors of rich nations are either closing down to the young people of the south or getting narrower. This is a very ominous sign for the poor countries trying to get ready for globalisation.

While standing solidly against terrorism the Commonwealth may make it clear that terrorism is not something which can be conquered at the battlefield. We must address the root causes of terrorism to eliminate it. One of the major causes of terrorism is poverty.

Education for the poor via interest on principal:

Another Grameen Company, called Grameen Education, offers a scholarship management service. If a sponsor gives a recoverable grant of Tk 100,000 (US $ 1,724) a scholarship of Tk 500 (US $ 8.62) per month, or 6 per cent per year on the grant amount, is given to any poor student, Grameen or non-Grameen, upto perpetuity or as long as the money is kept with Grameen Education. Grameen Education is hoping to find hundreds of thousands of sponsors for these scholarships to prepare the poor boys and girls in Bangladesh for the knowledge economy and globalisation.
http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/Commonlth03.html

Grameen

Is Grameen Bank Different
From Conventional Banks?

Muhammad Yunus
October, 2007

Grameen Bank methodology is almost the reverse of the conventional banking methodology. Conventional banking is based on the principle that the more you have, the more you can get. In other words, if you have little or nothing, you get nothing. As a result, more than half the population of the world is deprived of the financial services of the conventional banks.

Conventional banking is based on collateral, Grameen system is collateral- free.

Grameen Bank starts with the belief that credit should be accepted as a human right, and builds a system where one who does not possess anything gets the highest priority in getting a loan. Grameen methodology is not based on assessing the material possession of a person, it is based on the potential of a person. Grameen believes that all human beings, including the poorest, are endowed with endless potential.

Conventional banks look at what has already been acquired by a person. Grameen looks at the potential that is waiting to be unleashed in a person.

Conventional poor women.banks are owned by the rich, generally men. Grameen Bank is owned by

Overarching objective of the conventional banks is to maximize profit. Grameen Bank's objective is to bring financial services to the poor, particularly women and the poorest  to help them fight poverty, stay profitable and financially sound. It is a composite objective, coming out of social and economic visions.

Conventional banks focus on men, Grameen gives high priority to women. 97 per cent of Grameen Bank's borrowers are women. Grameen Bank works to raise the status of poor women in their families by giving them ownership of assets. It makes sure that the ownership of the houses built with Grameen Bank loans remain with the borrowers, i.e., the women.

Grameen Bank branches are located in the rural areas, unlike the branches of conventional banks which try to locate themselves as close as possible to the business districts and urban centers. First principle of Grameen banking is that the clients should not go to the bank, it is the bank which should go to the people instead. Grameen Bank's 24,703 staff meet 7.34 million borrowers at their door-step in 80,257 villages spread out all over Bangladesh, every week, and deliver bank's service. Repayment of Grameen loans is also made very easy by splitting the loan amount in tiny weekly installments. Doing business this way means a lot of work for the bank, but it is a lot convenient for the borrowers

There is no legal instrument between the lender and the borrower in the Grameen methodology. There is no stipulation that a client will be taken to the court of law to recover the loan, unlike in the conventional system. There is no provision in the methodology to enforce a contract by any external intervention

Conventional banks go into 'punishment' mode when a borrower is taking more time in repaying the loan than it was agreed upon. They call these borrowers "defaulters". Grameen methodology allows such borrowers to reschedule their loans without making them feel that they have done anything wrong (indeed, they have not done anything wrong.)

When a client gets into difficulty, conventional banks get worried about their money, and make all efforts to recover the money, including taking over the collateral. Grameen system, in such cases, works extra hard to assist the borrower in difficulty, and makes all efforts to help her regain her strength and overcome her difficulties.

In conventional banks charging interest does not stop unless specific exception is made to a particular defaulted loan. Interest charged on a loan can be multiple of the principal, depending on the length of the loan period. In Grameen Bank, under no circumstances total interest on a loan can exceed the amount of the loan, no matter how long the loan remains unrepaid. No interest is charged after the interest amount equals the principal

Conventional banks do not pay attention to what happens to the borrowers' families as results of taking loans from the banks. Grameen system pays a lot of attention to monitoring the education of the children (Grameen Bank routinely gives them scholarships and student loans), housing, sanitation, access to clean drinking water, and their coping capacity for meeting disasters and emergency situations. Grameen system helps the borrowers to build their own pension funds, and other types of savings.

Interest on conventional bank loans are generally compounded quarterly, while all interests are simple interests in Grameen Bank.

In case of death of a borrower, Grameen system does not require the family of the deceased to pay back the loan. There is a built-in insurance programme which pays off the entire outstanding amount with interest. No liability is transferred to the family.

In Grameen Bank even a beggar gets special attention. A beggar comes under a campaign from Grameen Bank which is designed to persuade him/her to join Grameen programme. The bank explains to her how she can carry some merchandise with her when she goes out to beg from door to door and earn money, or she can display some merchandise by her side when she is begging in a fixed place. Grameen's idea is to graduate her to a dignified livelihood rather than continue with beggin

Such a programme would not be a part of a conventional bank's work.

Grameen system encourages the borrowers to adopt some goals in social, educational and health areas. These are knows as "Sixteen Decisions" (no dowry, education for children, sanitary latrine, planting trees, eating vegetables to combat night-blindness among children, arranging clean drinking water, etc.). Conventional banks do not see this as their business.

In Grameen, we see the poor people as human "bonsai". If a healthy seed of a giant tree is planted in a flower-pot, the tree that will grow will be a miniature version of the giant tree. It is not because of any fault in the seed, because there is no fault in the seed. It is only because the seed has been denied of the real base to grow on. People are poor because society has denied them the real social and economic base to grow on. They are given only the "flower-pots" to grow on. Grameen's effort is to move them from the "flower-pot" to the real soil of the society.

If we can succeed in doing that there will be no human "bonsai" in the world. We'll have a poverty-free world.

http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/GBdifferent.htm

team work

Some messages aren't clear, Covey said. Companies will say how important teamwork is, but still base pay on individual contributions. They still rely on individual job descriptions rather than looking for people whose skills complement each other's.

And even clear messages can backfire if workers don't have a voice in setting the goals, Covey said. "Without involvement, there is no commitment."

Lesson: when hiring for NMFN or any other team work I'm involved with, hire complementary people to accomplish the objective.

*Study personality types, job types - to learn about key partnerships/synergy*
-then pay scale based on it!!

Social Entrepreneurship

From the San Francisco Chronicle
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The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/11/13/BUGLD9QLT81.DTL
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Saturday, November 13, 2004 (SF Chronicle)


Covey describes 8th habit
Dave Murphy
In his long-awaited follow-up to "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," Stephen Covey includes an anecdote from Muhammad Yunus, an economics teacher in Bangladesh 25 years ago, who recalled meeting a woman who was basically stuck in poverty over a matter of pennies.

She made bamboo stools, but couldn't afford to pay the equivalent of 20 U. S. cents to buy the bamboo. She had to borrow the money from the bamboo trader, then sell her stools to him at a price he dictated. So the woman ended up earning 2 cents a day.

As Covey explains in "The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness" (Free Press), Yunus took a student around the village and came up with a list of 42 people in that sort of situation.

"When I added up the total amount they needed," Covey quotes Yunus as saying, "I got the biggest shock of my life: It added up to 27 dollars! I felt ashamed of myself for being part of a society which could not provide even 27 dollars to 42 hard-working, skilled human beings."

He loaned them the money, telling them to pay it back whenever they could afford to. Yunus asked bankers for help, but they were all skeptical that the money would be repaid by people who were too poor to offer collateral.

He got every penny back, so he went to other villages and did the same thing, always getting repaid. But the banks still wouldn't do anything to help.

So he started a bank of his own. Covey reports that Grameen Bank now works in thousands of villages in Bangladesh, lending about $500 million a year -- with the average loan being less than $200.

That's an example of what Covey calls the eighth habit: "Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs." More than just the generic "follow your passion," he explains how important it is to make sure your work fills a need and helps you leave a legacy.

Covey writes that most of the world's great leaders don't get inspired by one burst of vision, but gradually develop their purpose.

"People sense human need and respond to their conscience in trying to meet that need," he writes. "And when they meet that need, they see another, and meet that, and on and on. Little by little, they begin to generalize this sense of need and start thinking of ways to institutionalize their efforts so they can be sustained."

In an interview, Covey explained that most companies are still using industrial-age models, rather than appreciating how much value their workers' skills add. He said that most workers either don't understand their companies' goals or haven't been told exactly how their jobs help the company achieve those goals.

Some messages aren't clear, Covey said. Companies will say how important teamwork is, but still base pay on individual contributions. They still rely on individual job descriptions rather than looking for people whose skills complement each other's.

And even clear messages can backfire if workers don't have a voice in setting the goals, Covey said. "Without involvement, there is no commitment."

One thing that intrigued me about the book was that Covey includes a DVD with 16 short videos that supplement his lessons. "Many people are visual learners," he explained in the interview. "They have been raised by television rather than by reading."

On the Fringe appears Saturdays. E-mail Dave Murphy at
dmurphy@sfchronicle.com.