This past week I attended the Hyperion Solutions 2005 Global Conference. While the Conference was great for anyone interested in Business Performance Management software solutions, it was a featured non-profit organization, Opportunity International (which Hyperion and its partners donated financial mangement software to), which really caught my attention.
Who would think that in developing countries a microloan in the range of $50 to $200 would be enough money to give an ultra poor entrepreneur the funding necessary to get themselves out of poverty. With the tagline “Giving the poor a working chance”, Opportunity International has found that “many of the world’s poorest people are a good credit risk” and has a demonstrated repayment rate of 98% which then allows the repaid money to be reloaned to another needy entrepreneur continuing the cycle. What an awesome way to help millions of families in countries, such as tsunami-ravaged India and Indonesia, as well as AIDS-stricken Africa, help themselves to get out of poverty.
I think it’s great to see how a techology solution can be provided and utilized by business professionals to benefit countries and people that by themselves would never be able to afford to do so on their own.
Not to minimize my admiration for the Opportunity International program and all those that worked to create and now run that organization….but I can’t help but wonder what would need to be done to get something like that to work in the U.S. A loan of $50 to $200 certainly wouldn’t help any poor or homelss person in the U.S. get very far at all…..
I recently went to a free seminar on “Finanical Planning & Strategies For the Small Business Owner”. This was a NJ Small Business Development Center (NJSBDC) event that was presented by American Express Financial Advisors. And the SBDC was very strict about not allowing the AMEX presenters to endorse any particular product or services, which the AMEX folks, under the watchful eye of the SBDC host, were very clear to continuously point out that they weren’t doing. The session was actually very well done and quite informative. It definitely helped that the presenters were quite entertaining and were very good at keeping the material interesting.
I just mention this particular event because I thought I’d share a quote that one of the presenters used which I liked so much that I wrote it down and googled later once I got home to make sure I got it right. Googling showed me that the quote was used in a different context than it’s original source, but I found both contexts to be equally thought-provoking. And, interestingly, as I thought more about it, and from observing the general race and gender of the audiences of similar programs and events, I came to feel that the context might not really be all that different after all.
Here’s how the quote was presented in terms of the opportunities of being self-employed. Paraphrasing… Being in business for yourself there is no glass ceiling. Then a Chris Rock quote was referred to, that, according to my notes had something to do with the sky’s the limit versus it’s inverse, which I couldn’t exactly remember. But, Google found it for me. Within an internet-posted essay, I was able to find the Chris Rock quote. It goes like this:
“When you white, the sky’s the limit, when you black, the limit’s the sky.” — from Chris Rock’s Bigger and Blacker.
In place of “white” versus “black”, substitute in, “being in business for yourself” versus “being in business for someone else”.
I think it’s a great quote no matter how you use it.
