Page 253 - The Power to Change Anything

242 INFLUENCER

No longer did these women hide behind their own front door
and simply take what fate had handed them. Now they met,
talked, formed businesses, supported each other, signed for each
others’ loans, and became a genuine community, all within the
confines of their own building where they met weekly.
Several forces are at play every time these intrepid entre-
preneurs meet and fight their way out of poverty. Surely the
social supports they provide one another help them make it
through tough times, and they have plenty of tough times. The
fact that they sign for each others’ loans goes a long way toward
ensuring that the businesses they create are well thought
through. By forming 30-person units, they now offer as a group
enough potential profit to command a bank’s attention—
something they never commanded individually.
And now we add one more feature. Yunus and his team had
the good sense to design a simple space where this all happens.
It wasn’t easy. To come up with a building that was inexpen-
sive enough to fit the budget of 30 poverty-stricken women
called for a lot of work and careful planning. But they eventu-
ally did it, and the design ended up winning several interna-
tional design awards.
So let’s hear it for the architects out there who provide them
(and us) with space. Now let’s just hope we have the good sense
to understand its effects.

MAKE IT EASY

For years there was a running debate concerning whether
humans were the only animals that use tools. When scientists
watched chimpanzees sit next to an anthill and place a stick
in the entrance hole as a way of gathering ants—without hav-
ing to dig—they decided that these creatures, with whom we
share almost 95 percent of our DNA, were also using tools. So
we now have our answer. Smart creatures, including Homo
sapiens, use tools. Why? Because smart creatures do their best
to find a way to make hard tasks easier.