Thought-Wise: Taking Action

Back to the Basics of Self Empowerment - Victim or Creator?

A young boy I was mentoring years ago as part of a program run by The Citizens Foundation in Pakistan blurted in middle of a group pep talk, "You don't understand sir, the whole world is against me; the teacher never gives me the marks that other students get for the same work." Being a mentor, I was a bit taken aback by that downbeat remark but I realized that I had to be sensitive to how strong emotions from other students might come into play. Before I even had a chance to wrap my head around the possible nuances of the comment, another boy cut in "But sir, he does not even try." Rewind one week to the orientation session; we all gathered in a small room already filled with a bunch of passionate boys and girls all wanting to make a real difference in the lives of less privileged students living on the outskirts of Karachi. An equally enthusiastic speaker adorned in crisp white shalwar kameez spoke about the Victim-Creator model of thinking. I was fas...

The Tree Climbing Fish

Just like any seemingly profound thought embellished with fancy graphics and double the dose of lilac hues, the following quote, often attributed to Albert Einstein, has become a pet meme for facebookers around the world. Regardless of whether or not Einstein actually said that, we need to be careful when trying to understand the true nature of the tree-climbing fish. "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." If this is taken out of context, we run the risk of bereaving our educators and our future generations of the passion to impart and receive real education. The analogy is not intended to undermine the growth mindset . Einstein, or whoever the heck it was, didn't mean to promote the thought that we are all predisposed with a fixed supply of abilities. That would have meant that fish cannot (and should not) learn to climb the tree. On the contrary, the idea of r...

The State of Financial Inclusion in Developing Economies

This article was originally published on The Market Mogul . Please read here . In the third of Clinton Lectures at the Georgetown University in April 2015, the 42nd president of the United States, Bill Clinton noted, “If you have a vision, a strategy and you have the support of people at the grassroots level because you’re inclusive, these kinds of things can be done by ordinary citizens.” tweet What he was referring to was the idea of radical inclusion for ensuring broad-based prosperity in America and the world. In today’s world where more than three billion people live on less than $2.50 a day and more than 1.3 billion on less than $1.25 a day, the idea of radical inclusion has never been more pertinent than it is now. Of all kinds of inclusion–political, cultural and financial–providing fair and widespread access to financial services has the most direct impact on poverty reduction. Why financial inclusion is important ...

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