Most Valuable Donkey.

Once upon a Time an OverConfident Entrepreneur backed by some Naive Investors and a Greedy Banker happened to convince an Aggressive Venture Capitalist to start "The Farm" in Nylon Valley.

The OverConfident Entrepreneur recruited some Horses, Donkeys, Hogs and Cows to work on the Farm. He opened Bank Accounts for all the Animals with the Greedy Banker. Donkeys worked on the Farm, Hogs were on The Bench, Cows did the Dairy for the House and Horses took The Produce from the Farm to the Village.

The Naive Investors got Shares, Greedy Banker got Bank Accounts, Aggressive Venture Capitalist got some progress, Horses / Cows got Credit Cards and Donkeys / Hogs got Debit Cards. All was going well and that kept everybody Interested and Happy. Season started, Donkeys worked really hard in The Farm and brought a very good Produce.

Horses took the Produce to the Village and slowly a good word spread about the Quality of Produce of The Farm. Villagers started tagging the livestock with the name of "The Farm". Donkeys were happy and proud to be recognized as a part of The Farm. Soon the Entreprenuer gave Fat PayChecks to the Horses and Cows, Fooled more Naive Investors to back him for buying a bigger Barren Land adjacent to The Farm and get rid of the Aggressive Venture Capitalist.

The Greedy Banker saw an Opportunity and started giving Home / Car Loans to Horses and Cows and Credit Cards to Donkeys and Hogs for Higher Interest Rates. This opened up a "New Blue Ocean" in the Village - Bars, Clubs, Movie Theatres and Shopping Malls raised their price tags. Horses and Cows were able to afford the Prices, though it was tough for Donkeys and Hogs, they also joined the Band Wagon and burnt their Pay Checks. New Entreprenuers saw the opportunity and started more Farms around the Nylon Valley. New Jobs, New Banks, New Businesses and New Competition. There was abundance and Wolves started migrating to Nylon Valley.

To motivate the Donkeys at work the OverConfident Entreprenuer rolled his dice and started recognizing some Donkeys as "Most Valuable DumbAss Donkeys of The Farm" every Quarter. Some really DumbAss Donkeys got the recognition, some donkeys tried for the recognition and the left over Donkeys made friends with the Hogs on The Bench. He also introduced a program to send some Donkeys onsite to The Village along with the Horses. This was the biggest motivator for the DumbAss Donkeys and they worked their asses to turn the Barren Land into Green.

Though DumbAss Donkeys deserved a promotion, new Ponys were recruited to manage Donkeys on the Farm. Hogs still enjoyed The Bench playing Basket Ball and Swimming in the Lake. Bystander Wolves in the Village enticed some LiveStock to change Farms for a better Pay Check. Most Hogs used the Brand name of the firm and started doing Horse Jobs. Some intelligent Horses, Ponys, Cows and Donkeys also jumped Boats. But The Most Valuable DumbAss Donkeys were still Day Dreaming about their Onsite, never left The Farm and ignored their Opportunities in hand.

Seasons changed, and over time the Cultural distinction between Horses, Ponys, Donkeys, Cows and Hogs got Diluted. It became difficult to distinguish Hogs from Horses. Greedy Banker found it difficult to recover loans from the animals. Because of the Growth and Competition even the Quality of Produce of The Farm fell rapidly. The OverConfident Entreprenuer was unable to eat the bullet. He fired all the Hogs on The Bench. Got rid of most of the Donkeys and Horses in the Farm. He made those Most Valuable DumbAss Donkeys do the whole work.

There was a recession in Nylon Valley and all animals started migrating to other Jobs / living on unemployment benefits. All DumbAss Donkeys got burnt with extra work. The Ponys threatned the DumbAss Donkeys by showing Pink Slips.

In the End, Entreprenuer, Investors, Banker, Venture Capitalist, Other Businesses, Horses, Hogs, Cows, Ponys and some Not Very Valuable Donkeys all made Money. Inspite of all the Hard Work, the MostValuable DumbAss Donkeys retired of Old Age. They never made it to Onsite and never made any Money.

Finally:
Dumb Asses live lives with Fear of Losing Donkey Work.

Banker To The Poor

The Simplest and the Most Effective Solution to a very Complex Problem hides in the last place we would ever look for..!!

This is one of my Favourite books. I came across this one accidentally, before reading this I thought I knew enough about Micro Lending, my definition of Micro Lending was giving loans to Poor People in Villages from the Tax Payers money and write them off as Bad Debt.. :(.

Ah...!! How terribly wrong I was. This book is a 300 Page journey through the life of Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh to America and back to Bangladesh - Three Share Farm experiment - Problems of Jobra women - Birth of Grameen bank - Grameen's troubles in learning to walk and run - The impact it made in the whole world - Bill Clinton's interest in the Program - Financial problems of Grameen... and its Success.

The Idea of Grameen is Simple [Because Muhammad found it and proved it]. All Poor women in the village are divided into groups of 5 each. Each one of them will give a test, if any one women in the group fails the test, the loan is revoked. So there is enough pressure in the group to succeed which makes all 5 of them move forward. Then all of them are give a very small loan. If any one of the group member fails to repay on time - the loan for the whole group is revoked. Hence enough pressure is created in the group again to repay.

Finally, there is no need for a hi-fi 'Rocket Science' to solve most of the complex problems in the world.. Just look for a Simple Solution which hides in the last place we would ever look for..!!