Week 6 Part 2

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Are We Not All Beggars?

Rich or poor, we are to “do what we can” when others are in need.

Thus the Savior made the first public announcement of His messianic ministry. But this verse also made clear that on the way to His ultimate atoning sacrifice and Resurrection, Jesus’s first and foremost messianic duty would be to bless the poor, including the poor in spirit.

In our day, the restored Church of Jesus Christ had not yet seen its first anniversary when the Lord commanded the members to “look to the poor and … needy, and administer to their relief that they shall not suffer.”6 Note the imperative tone of that passage—“they shall not suffer.” That is language God uses when He means business.

Don’t we all beg for forgiveness for mistakes we have made and troubles we have caused? Don’t we all implore that grace will compensate for our weaknesses, that mercy will triumph over justice at least in our case?

More than three-quarters of a million members of the Church were helped last year through fast offerings administered by devoted bishops and Relief Society presidents. That is a lot of grateful Latter-day Saints.

In an 1831 revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord said the poor would one day see the kingdom of God coming to deliver them “in power and great glory.”21 May we help fulfill that prophecy by coming in the power and glory of our membership in the true Church of Jesus Christ to do what we can to deliver any we can from the poverty that holds them captive and destroys so many of their dreams, I pray in the merciful name of Jesus Christ, amen.

What’s a Business For? by Charles Handy

To many, it seems that executives no longer run their companies for the benefit of consumers, or even of their shareholders and employees, but for their personal ambition and financial gain.

CEOs in America earn more than 400 times the wages of their lowest-paid workers make a mockery of Plato’s ideal, in what was, admittedly, a smaller and simpler world, that no person should be worth more than four times another

Capitalist fundamentalism may have lost its sheen, but the urgent need now is to retain the energy produced by the old model while remedying its flaws. Better and tougher regulation would help, as would a clearer separation of auditing from consulting. Corporate governance will now surely be taken more seriously by all concerned, with responsibilities more clearly defined, penalties spelled out, and watchdogs appointed. But these will be plasters on an open sore. They will not cure the disease that lies at the core of the business culture.

We cannot escape the fundamental question, Whom and what is a business for? The answer once seemed clear, but no longer. The terms of business have changed.

We need to eat to live; food is a necessary condition of life. But if we lived mainly to eat, making food a sufficient or sole purpose of life, we would become gross.

It is salutary to ask about any organization, “If it did not exist, would we invent it?” “Only if it could do something better or more useful than anyone else” would have to be the answer, and profit would be the means to that larger end.

Video: Make It Personal and Make It Work, Sheryl Sandberg,  Facebook

The interesting thing about all of these visions is that they that scaled they were vision hat these companies set out in the beginning that continue to work, make it personal and make it work. So if you want to be an entrepreneur and you want to be a leader chose a vison that scales, that’s compelling is such an integral part of great leadership. I believe that you can be the most compelling person in the world, but you have to compel people with the why and the what you are doing is the why. Help us build a community help us connect the world, help us make information accessible, that’s compelling.

Video: Entrepreneurship and Consecration

Harold B Lee said, when you begin to make service to meet others needs your constant practice you are beginning a program that will make you successful in your chosen field, and your needs will begin automatically to take care of themselves, this great idea in action has made great inventors and great businessmen.

If we are not to labor for money but to serve others through business, then what is he purpose of business commercial ventures, we can call it service but I would like to suggest that business has a 2 fold purpose, to provide for basic needs and the other we are rescue others as directed by the Lord, that is the service to be accomplished.

President Monson said we need to leave he comforts of home and go and rescue, ask yourself have I rescued anyone lately?

Business is about service and rescue

Microlending toward a poverty free world Muhammad Yunus

I always enjoyed the process of shaping young minds both as a student being at the receiving end of it and as a teacher playing the role of giving shapes when I left campus to seek answers to the questions I was grappling with I gradually got worried about the risk involved in shaping young people’s minds particularly in the areas of social and economic issues I started getting the feeling that the world’s worst social and economic problems are unwittingly created in the classrooms because they shape young people s minds too rigidly or without enough warning that our knowledge in social sciences is only tentative and that students should not take it as absolute truth.

although

I enjoyed teaching my students all the brilliant solutions to economic problems I felt absolutely incapable of dealing with the massive poverty and hunger that existed in the villages around the campus I soon realized that there was a great distance between the real life of the poor and the hungry people and the make-believe world of economic theory.

I decided to learn real life economics from the people who lived around the campus the village next door became my university the poor in the village became my professors I learned another kind of economics but this time it was real.

People see what they are trained to see it takes a serious attempt on one’s part to take off the glasses one has been fitted with during student days I was lucky I could start seeing things differently than I had been trained to see problems started looking easier to solve than they had appeared to me previously.

Finally gave up on changing the minds of the bankers I went ahead and founded a bank myself to continue doing what I was doing today that bank grameen gradeen bank lends money to 2.3 Million poor borrowers in $39,000 villages of bangladesh and 94 percent of our borrowers are women to date more than 2.4 billion dollars were given out as loans over the years. The repayment rate is more than 97 percent last year alone we lent out nearly $400 million.

Somehow we have persuaded ourselves that the capitalist economy must be fueled only by greed since economics persuaded us that way we all believed that way As a result it became a self-fulfilling prophecy only seekers of personal gain go into the marketplace and try their talent those who are not interested in accumulating personal wealth and income do not find the marketplace very attractive they use their talents elsewhere.

I think social consciousness driven entrepreneurs can be an effective force in the marketplace.

Creating a poverty free world

I strongly believe that we can create a poverty free world if we want to we can create a world where there won’t be a single human being who may be described as a poor person in that kind of a world the only place you could see poverty would be in the museums school children on tour in the poverty museums would be horrified to see the misery and indignity of human beings in the past they would blame their ancestors in a massive way for allowing this inhuman condition to continue

before I conclude my remarks I simply wish to encourage all of you to remember irrespective of what you learn in school always be ready to unlearn and relearn Don’t  give up dreaming be a dreamer and keep on trying to make the dream come true dream about the world you would like to have if we all dream about a better world I can guarantee you that we will create a better world.