The process of breaking down fear was always my greatest challenge and it was made easier by the careful work and gentle voices of my female workers.

In the future the question will not be, "Are people credit-worthy", but rather, "Are banks people-worthy?"

Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong in their seeds. Simply, society never gave them the base to grow on. All it needs to get the poor people out of poverty for us to create an enabling environment for them. Once the poor can unleash their energy and creativity, poverty will disappear very quickly.

Policies are also to blame: the only thing that the governments and people can come up with to give to the poor people is charity. Poor people get hand outs from the state. But this is not a solution to poverty.

The oneness of human beings is the basic ethical thread that holds us together.

They explained to me that the bank cannot lend money to poor people because these people are not creditworthy.

I believe that "government", as we know it today, should pull out of most things except for law enforcement and justice, national defense and foreign policy, and let the private sector, a "Grameenized private sector", a social-consciousness-driven private sector, take over their other functions.