Post written by Christa Avampato. You can follow Christa on Twitter.
A few weeks ago, I went to the 92Y to hear Dr. Muhammed Yunus speak. He is considered by many to be the founder of the micro-credit movement and he’s one of my heroes.
By his own will and ability to inspire hope in others, he has lifted thousands up out of poverty, or rather helped thousands lift themselves up out of poverty.
He glows with good energy.
What struck me most about him is how casual and ordinary he is. Moderated by the brilliant Matthew Bishop of The Economist, Dr. Yunus’s talk made every person in that crowd believe that we could do just as much good in the world as he has done. (He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 and was awarded a Fulbright in Economics. Aim high!)
Most of the good he’s done was against all odds, when nearly everyone told him his dream of ending poverty was just foolish and unattainable. He is a man who never gives up. “I just ignore the nay-sayers,” he said, “because I know I’m right.”
In the hour-long conversation, he shared roughly a million nuggets of truth and goodness. One nugget that has stuck with me, and that I continue to repeat to myself every day, is his idea that we should just focus on helping 5 people in our social change efforts. If we think about having to help an entire city or country, we’ll never do anything. We’ll be come paralyzed by the enormity of the task.
As a young professional, Dr. Yunus concerned himself with 1 village in Bangladesh. Just one. He wanted to help a handful of people there live better lives with a little help from those around them who had a little help to give. That tiny idea over time became Grameen Bank, which has led to numerous Grameen ventures all over the world, including one in Jackson Heights, Queens in New York.
Big change starts with a very small idea. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Here are five to get you going.
1.) Develop an after-school program that helps 5 kids gain job skills. Citizenschools.org and juniorachievement.org are great organizations to get involved with.
2.) Connect five people with similar interests who may be able to help one another
3.) Make a donation to a nonprofit that serves 5 hot meals to people who are hungry, plants 5 trees in a local park, or provides shelter for 5 homeless animals for one night
4.) Spend 5 hours a month dedicated to helping someone else with absolutely no benefit to you. This could be done through volunteer work in your community or just helping out a friend, neighbor, co-worker, or family member.
5.) Pick 5 people in your life who have helped you when you really needed them and do something kind for each of them to show your appreciation.
What ideas do you have that we can add to this list? Nothing is too big or small.
