From Poverty in Bangladesh to Nobel Peace Prize.
By Assertive Way
Resourcefulness is not just about using Google and Youtube to find answers to your questions. Resourcefulness is like magic because it creates unimaginable things out of what appears to be nothing.
There are two types of professionally successful people:
- Those who build on what their families already have – money, networks, businesses, and great education
- Those who are self-made – who start from nothing (or very little)
Self-made successful professionals are incredibly resourceful. Resourceful people do a lot with limited resources.
Self-made successful professionals are incredibly resourceful.
One of my favorite examples of resourcefulness is Muhammad Yunus, the creator of microcredit for the poor through the Grameen Bank business model.
Muhammad Yunus started life as one of nine children in a modest family in Bangladesh. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for creating the concept of microcredits and microfinance to the poor through the Grameen Bank.
He invested in his studies and progressively got better education, leading to a Fulbright scholarship and a PhD in economics in the United States.
When a famine happened in Bangladesh, he brought together his two passions to help solve the problem. His two passions were helping the poor and economics.
He interviewed poor and concluded that small business loans could help them. But he had a constraint: the banks would not lend to the poor because of the high risk of default.
Muhammad Yunus had a strong belief that the poor would use the loan to expand their businesses and would repay the loans eventually. To test his concept, he personally financed 42 women in the village. And it worked. Then, he created Grameen bank, the bank for the poor, to give micro loans.
Here are 7 lessons we can learn about how to be more resourceful with Muhammad Yunus.
- Take advantage of opportunities
Muhammad Yunus immersed himself in all educational opportunities he had. With each opportunity that he took advantage of, a new one emerged.
Learn how to spot and grab opportunities as they show up in your life.
- Embrace different experiences in your life
After becoming a professor of Economics in the United States, Muhammad Yunus could have ignored his past living in a poor village in Bangladesh. Instead, he stayed connected to his past experiences, which allowed him to find unique opportunities to serve his community by blending that knowledge with advanced economics theory.
Look at all aspects of your life as potential strengths and opportunities. Something that you perceive as a weakness may in fact be a strength or a unique perspective that only you would have.
- Embrace your passions
Know your passions. Pursue your passions. They will ignite your fire and willpower to move projects to completion. Muhammad Yunus combined his passion for serving the poor in Bangladesh with his passion for economic theory.
- Appreciate constraints
The biggest constraint for creating microloans to the poor was that banks were not willing to give the loans because of the high rates of default. It was that constraint that fostered Yunus creativity and experiments to find a credit model that was workable.
Constraints ignite creativity. Don’t let constraints stop you. Instead, use constraints to move you forward. Constraints will force you to think creatively, find novel perspectives and solutions.
- Have clear beliefs
Yunus believed that the poor would repay the microloans. Resourceful people have strong beliefs and confidence in something they want to achieve.
- Take calculated risks
Yunus financed 42 family projects himself, not knowing what the outcome would be. He took a calculated risk to prove a concept that he believed in. Resourceful people take calculated risks to try new things.
- Be more driven by goals then by what others will think
Yunus was not worried about other people’s judgment of his crazy ideas before it became famous. He focused on his goal.
Resourcefulness is an optimistic goal-oriented mindset. With that mindset, you can find resources that others don’t see and use them to achieve your goals. With the resourceful mindset, you can move ahead even if the road is foggy and you can only see one meter (3 feet) ahead of you.
With the resourceful mindset, you can move ahead even if the road is foggy and you can only see one meter (3 feet) ahead of you.
Next time you face a problem and don’t have the money, time, team, networks, access, training you think you need, remind yourself to be resourceful.
SUMMARY
Resourceful people create more out of less. Resourcefulness is a mindset. Be resourceful by taking advantage of opportunities, embracing different experiences in your life, embracing you passions, appreciating constraints, having clear beliefs, taking calculated risks, and being more driven by goals then by what other people think.
“A resourceful person will always make opportunity fit his or her needs.” – Napoleon Hill