Leadership: If we don’t do something about it, who will?

Microfinance in Nepal

Leadership to me is all about a choice.

The choice to take responsibility for the world in which we live.

It is about doing something (as Margaret Thatcher would say) to make the world a better place – taking a stand, being indignant, and sometimes being difficult:

Every great figure who has contributed to the human race has been hated, not just by one person, but often by a great many. That hatred is so strong it has caused those great figures to be shunned, abused, murdered and in one famous instance, nailed to a cross.

I am working here in Nepal with Nirdhan Utthan Bank Limited, the largest microfinance organisation in the country – with 108,000 loan clients and 168,000 members at last count. An inspiring man named Dr Pant started the organisation after visiting the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

How many countless others have gone to visit the Grameen Bank and have done nothing?

I remember in Australia my experiences working in the green building industry with the Green Building Council of Australia. There were those who put in countless hours to make the organisation better, more effective.

And then there were those who spent countless hours complaining about it.

There are those who complain “there is no market for my product”. And then there are those who are “entrepreneurs of will – even without a market or economically viable business (they) would have grown (their) businesses through will alone.”

I am working on an energy access project in India and my friend Jamie recently put together a pitch for the project. In the reasons why he listed this first: there are 280 million people in India who lack access to electricity.

If we don’t do something about it, who will?

Tags: entrepreneur, leadership, microfinance