I wanted to find a solution to a problem, and I wanted to do whatever it takes to end that problem.
我想要找出問題的解答,我想要不計一切代價終結那個問題。
In the mid-1970s, Bangladesh was wracked with poverty and famine. Greedy money lenders victimized local villagers who wanted to start small businesses. In one village, Muhammad Yunus counted forty-two people who needed just twenty-seven dollars to break out of poverty.
在1970年代中期,孟加拉因貧困及饑荒受到重創。貪婪的放款人欺騙了想要開始做小生意的當地村民們。在一個村莊中,Muhammad Yunus計算出四十二個人需要僅僅二十七元就能脫離貧困。
So then an idea came to my mind: if I give these twenty-seven dollars to all these forty-two people, they can return the money to the money lender, so they'll be free. And that's what exactly ended. And the happiness that they brought to them caught me in. And I ask myself the question: if you can make so many people so happy with such a small amount of money, why shouldn't you do it more?
接著有個想法從我腦中冒出:如果我拿這些二十七元給這些四十二個人,他們就可以把錢還給放款人,這樣他們就能自由。而那正是這樣結束的。它們帶給他們的幸福吸引了我。我問自己這問題:如果你可以用這麼一小筆的錢讓這麼多人如此快樂,為什麼你不該多多益善?
Since that first bet, the bank Muhammad Yunus started has made nearly five billion dollars in loans. It's a model that has been copied all over the world, spawning a movement known as "microfinance."
自從第一次的下注後,Muhammad Yunus所開辦的銀行已經借出將近五十億元的貸款。這是個在世界各地都被複製的模式,孕育出一個運動,就是所知的「微型金融」。
People are demonstrably better off in the world today by virtue of that simple insight. The small, unsecured loans can really make a difference.
藉由這個簡單的見解,今日世人確實過得更好。這個小型、無擔保的貸款真的可以有所影響。
Microfinance during the past twenty-five years has demonstrated that millions and millions of people can participate in society in a normal way.
在過去二十五年期間,微型金融證明了數百萬計的人們可以以正常方式參與社會。
In 2006, Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize: testimony to the role of a new kind of change agent, the social entrepreneur.
在2006年,Muhammad Yunus獲得了諾貝爾和平獎:是對一種新型態的改革推手--社會企業家這角色的證明。
Social entrepreneurs like Muhammad Yunus see opportunities where other people see hopeless failures. They see potential where other people see tragic consequences. They see a future that others can't even begin to imagine.
像是Muhammad Yunus的社會企業家在其他人看到絕望失敗之處看到機會。他們在別人看到的悲慘結果中看到潛力。他們看到其他人甚至無法開始想像的未來。
In this moment in history, where government has, at least in some places, has failed to provide basic goods and services, the things that societies need to really allow individuals to thrive. Social entrepreneurs are tackling those really big problems: Problems that reach beyond microfinance, such as educational opportunity, children's health, housing, clean water, climate change.
在歷史中的此刻,政府已經,至少在一些地方,政府已無法提供基本的商品及服務、無法提供那些社會要真正讓人們成功所需的東西。社會企業家正在解決那些非常重大的問題:超出微型金融以外的問題,像是教育機會、兒童健康、住家、乾淨水源、氣候變遷。
And the problem is if you look at what the current business, organizations and governments are doing in this sort of space, it really doesn't add up to a coherent solution of the scale that we need. Therefore, I think entrepreneurs are going to be profoundly necessary, because here's the people who used to break up the concrete.
這問題是如果你看看現在的企業、組織及政府在這種空間裡所做的事,它真的無法累積起來達到我們所需的那種規模的一致性解決方案。因此,我認為企業家會變得非常必要,因為這些是過去常打破固有想法的人。
Most people have to see to believe, but I think that social entrepreneurs believe, and then they see. Social entrepreneurs have seen that end result before even got started.
大多數人必須要眼見為憑,但我認為社會企業家們先相信,接著他們才看到。社會企業家甚至在他們開始之前就已看見最終結果。
And they've done so all over the world. In Mozambique, Blaise Judja-Sato transformed health care by providing reliable medical services to millions of villagers who have never previously been reached. In India, Bunker Roy's Barefoot College teaches people with no prior training to build and install solar electric technologies. And in the United States, Dorothy Stoneman has shown how young people can change their lives and their communities through job training and education.
而他們已在世界各地都做到了。在莫三比克,Blaise Judja-Sato改善醫療照護,透過提供可靠的醫療服務給數百萬以前從未被接觸過的村民們。在印度,Bunker Roy的赤腳學院教導沒受過事先訓練的人們建造及安裝太陽能電力技術。在美國,Dorothy Stoneman已證明年輕人可以怎麼透過工作訓練及教育改變他們的生活以及他們的社區。
We had three hundred abandoned buildings in East Harlem where I lived. We had hundreds, maybe thousands of young people standing on the corners with nothing to do, and lots of homeless people. So I looked at that. I thought there's something wrong with this picture. Someone should hire these young people to rebuild these buildings and create housing for the homeless people, and that's what we set out to do.
在我居住的East Harlem區有三百棟廢棄的建築。我們有數百個,也許數千個年輕人站在街角無所事事,還有許多無家可歸的人。所以我看到這個。我想這個畫面有些不對勁。有人需要雇用這些年輕人來重建這些建築,並建造住家給這些無家可歸的人,而這是我們正著手進行的事。
What's those powerful force you can bring to bear is a really big idea, but only if it's in the hands of a really good entrepreneur, it's not combination that changes the world.
你能夠運用的那股強大力量是個偉大的理念,但只有當它是在一個非常優秀的企業家手上,否則就不是個改變世界的組合。
Today, thousands of social entrepreneurs are tackling a range of problems in all corners of the globe, but until recently, few of them saw themselves as part of a larger movement.
今日,數千位社會企業家正在世界各個角落解決一系列的問題,但直到最近,他們之中很少人把自己看做是個較大型運動的一份子。
Some twenty years ago, social entrepreneurs were working alone, fundamentally they had no idea many times that other social entrepreneur existed. They had an experience of essentially going against stream. Very hard. These are very tough people, but still, alone.
在大約二十年前,社會企業家都孤軍奮戰,他們常常根本不知道有其他社會企業家存在。他們有本質上和趨勢背道而行的經歷。那非常困難。這些是非常堅韌的人們,但仍然,孤零零的一個人。
I think social entrepreneurs have always existed, but because they haven't always been defined as social entrepreneurs, because we've not always recognized them as such, they've had no collective identity. They have been lone pioneers.
我認為社會企業家一直以來都存在,但因為他們並不老是被定義為社會企業家,因為我們並不總是認為他們是,所以他們沒有共同的身分。他們都是孤獨的先鋒。
And now what you see in the world are a whole framework of supports that are coming up, coalescing very very quickly to say, "Hey, social entrepreneurship is very viable."
而今你們在世界上看到的是一整個擁護組織的出現,非常非常快速地聯合起來說:「嘿,社會企業家是非常可行的。」
Oxford recruits about three hundred highly talented MBA students each year. Students want to know how to change the world. They want to know how the skills they learn in business school can help them change the world.
牛津每年大約招收三百位非常優秀的MBA學生。學生們想要知道怎麼改變世界。他們想知道他們在商管學校學到的技能可以如何幫助他們改變世界。
When you see social entrepreneurs, regardless of how many problems and challenges that they have, they don't give up. They just push forward and they push forward, and that's inspiring to me.
當你看到社會企業家,不論他們有多少問題和挑戰,他們都不放棄。他們就是奮勇前進,然後再奮勇前進,那對我來說非常激勵人心。
Today, Oxford is just one of the many universities teaching social entrepreneurship and providing homes where practicing entrepreneurs can meet and learn from each other.
今天,牛津只是眾多教授社會企業家精神、並提供執業企業家可相互見面學習根據地的大學之一。
The point of supporting the social entrepreneurship movement is to create a home for those people to make them less maverick and more of a movement.
支持社會企業家精神運動的重點是要為那些人建立一個根據地,讓他們較不必特立獨行,且更能投入運動。
The more we wire the field together from local to national to global means that ideas go from Bangladesh to the US and Brazil, Poland to South Africa. That wasn't happening ten years ago. That's a function of the increased productivity at the field.
我們從當地、到全國、到全球所串接的領域越多,表示理念從孟加拉傳到美國和巴西,從波蘭傳到南非。那不是十年前發生的。那是在這領域中增長的生產力的作用。
I think the key thing that we have to come back to time and time again is these entrepreneurs cannot do this on their own. They need support. They need support from funders clearly, but they need strategic partnerships with that mainstream business, and they need the support of government and policymakers.
我認為我們必須時不時地回顧的關鍵事情是這些企業家無法只靠自己完成這些事。他們需要支持。他們很明顯地需要投資者的支持,但他們需要與主流企業的策略性夥伴關係,而且他們需要政府和決策者的支持。
What's so exciting to be alive at this moment, as a social entrepreneur connected to thousands of social entrepreneurs around the globe, is that within all of us there's this growing movement,
and that there's a hopefulness in starting to look at the problems we have as our problems.
在這一刻活著最興奮的事是,身為一位和世界各地數千位社會企業家聯繫的社會企業家,最興奮的事是在我們所有人之中有這樣一個不斷成長的運動,還有在開始將我們擁有的問題當作我們的問題去看待時,所抱持的希望。
My hope for the future is that by virtue of the stories that we tell about reasons for optimism, by virtue of the small pieces of success, we build some big pieces of success. Said in a decade's time, we can say this movement began with one very demonstrable success story, and that was called microfinance. But very quickly it built to series of other success stories, and look at the effect they've had on the world.
我對未來的希望是,憑藉著我們所說的這些有關樂觀理由的故事、憑藉著小片的成功,我們拼出一些大片的成功。十年時間的闡述,我們可以說這個運動是以一個非常明顯的成功故事開始的,而那叫做微型金融。但很快地它發展成一系列其他成功故事,然後看看那它們對世界帶來的影響。
- 「逃離、爆發」- Break Out
In one village, Muhammad Yunus counted forty-two people who needed just twenty-seven dollars to "break out" of poverty.
在一個村莊中,Muhammad Yunus計算出四十二個人需要僅僅二十七元就能脫離貧困。 - 「吸引到、逮到、抓住」- Catch In
And the happiness that they brought to them "caught me in".
它們帶給他們的幸福吸引了我。 - 「景況較佳、情況較好的」- Better Off
People are demonstrably better off in the world today by virtue of that simple insight.
藉由這個簡單的見解,今日世人確實過得更好。 - 「透過」- By Virtue Of
People are demonstrably better off in the world today "by virtue of" that simple insight.
藉由這個簡單的見解,今日世人確實過得更好。