Human Creativity is Unlimited – Muhammad Yunus

“Human creativity is unlimited. It is the capacity of humans to make things happen which didn’t happen before. Creativity provides the key to solving our social and economic problems.” ~ Muhammad Yunus

In the summer of 2012, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus visited my son’s high school in Japan, to speak to the students about his holistic model of sustainable economics that is designed to help solve problems and end poverty. The following are from notes that I wrote down during his talk…

“We need to have more faith in human creativity. We need innovative ideas that have been tested and implemented successfully. Human creativity is unlimited. It is the capacity of humans to make things happen which didn’t happen before. Creativity provides the key to solving our social and economic problems.

The social business model starts with a different question [from free market capitalism]. Instead of asking “How much money can I make?” we ask “How quickly can I solve a problem?”

Peace comes when we communicate and solve problems together. And a demonstration is more powerful than 100 books. You help 3 people successfully and then expand… Poverty is not a scarcity problem, it’s a distribution problem. When the challenge is big focus on single components one at a time. That then affects the whole situation.”

~Muhammad Yunus; July 20, 2012~

“We badly need a new economic model… We cannot continue living by ignoring environmental problems. The planet is overburdened… We do not have enough fresh water for the people.. Billions of people are subject to hunger today. So the new model must consider all these needs. This model must be more human and more nature oriented… We are all interconnected but we keep acting as though we are completely autonomous.” ~Mikhail Gorbachev

“We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.” ~Albert Einstein

“As a species, we are on the cusp of an evolutionary choice. Standing at the dawn of this perfect storm, we find ourselves at the beginning of a process of civilizational transition. As the old paradigm dies, a new paradigm is born. And many people around the world are already making the evolutionary choice to step away from the old, and embrace the new.” ~Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, The New Paradigm of Democracy

“Empathy is really important, and I think only when our clever brain and our human heart work together in harmony can we achieve our full potential.” ~Jane Goodall

* The Way of Wisdom – Great Minds Think Compassionately * Systems Thinking: Seeing How Everything is Connected * “We Need a New Economic Model, The Planet is Overburdened” Mikhail Gorbachev * Shifting Paradigms – Aligning with the Wisdom of Nature * Inter-Being: Awakening from the Illusion of Separateness * Beyond Capitalism & Socialism: Could a New Economic Approach Save the Planet * Let Us Think & Act Together (Gorbachev’s Nov. 2014 Speech) * The New Paradigm of Democracy * The Crisis of Civilization (Full Documentary) *