Making money is a happiness. And that's a great incentive. Making

"Making money is a happiness. And that's a great incentive. Making other people happy is a super-happiness." — Muhammad Yunus

In this radiant declaration, Muhammad Yunus, the father of microfinance and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, unveils the twofold nature of human joy — the joy of creation, and the joy of compassion. To make money, he says, is a kind of happiness — and rightly so, for it springs from effort, invention, and the mastery of one’s craft. It is the satisfaction of planting, tending, and harvesting the fruit of one’s labor. Yet there lies a higher joy still — the super-happiness, born not from gain, but from giving; not from holding wealth, but from using it to light another’s path. This is the transformation of material success into spiritual fulfillment — the alchemy that turns gold into grace.

Yunus did not speak these words as an idle philosopher, but as a man who saw both the power and the peril of wealth. In his native Bangladesh, he witnessed the sorrow of poverty amid the plenty of human potential. The poor did not lack wisdom or will — they lacked access. And so he founded the Grameen Bank, lending small sums to those whom the world ignored: women in villages, laborers, dreamers. These modest loans became seeds of dignity. Mothers built small shops, children went to school, and communities rose. Through this simple act of shared empowerment, Yunus discovered the higher truth — that happiness multiplies when it is shared.

To make money, he reminds us, is to participate in the world’s exchange of energy and creativity. It is a noble act when done with honesty and purpose. But to make others happy is to partake in the divine work — to lift the burdens of another, to restore their hope, to make them feel seen and valued. This is what he calls super-happiness — joy elevated beyond the self, joy that flows outward like a river nourishing every life it touches. The first happiness fills the hand; the second fills the heart.

The ancients understood this wisdom too. The philosopher Seneca once said, “No one can live happily who has regard to himself alone.” And the Buddha taught that the truest wealth is compassion, the only treasure that grows when it is given away. The great souls of every age have known what Yunus proclaimed anew — that joy expands in proportion to generosity. The miser may possess gold, but the giver possesses peace. Happiness held is a flicker; happiness shared is a flame.

Yet the world often confuses abundance with fulfillment. Many chase happiness through the accumulation of wealth, yet find their spirits emptier with every gain. They gather possessions but lose connection; they rise in power but fall in purpose. Yunus’ words come as a gentle correction to this blindness. He does not condemn prosperity — he honors it — but he reminds us that prosperity finds its meaning only when it serves the well-being of others. The great incentive is not in the pile of coins, but in the smiles they create.

Consider the story of a young Bangladeshi woman named Sufia Begum, one of Yunus’ first borrowers. With a small loan — barely enough to buy a few bamboo sticks — she began making stools. In time, she lifted her family out of hunger, sent her children to school, and inspired other women to do the same. For her, the loan was small; for humanity, it was immense. Yunus’s joy was not in the money returned, but in the life reborn. This was the living proof of super-happiness — the kind that blesses both giver and receiver alike.

So, my child of ambition and spirit, take this truth into your heart: seek not only to prosper, but to uplift. Let your success be not a tower that isolates you, but a bridge that connects you. Work with passion, for the joy of creation is divine — but do not stop there. Let your achievements become instruments of compassion. Use your talents, your resources, your time, to make another soul smile. For in that moment, your happiness will be transformed — from a fleeting pleasure into an eternal joy.

For the lesson of Muhammad Yunus is this: happiness becomes complete only when it escapes the boundaries of the self. The world does not remember those who merely gathered riches, but those who used them to heal and to build. Be among them. Strive, create, and prosper — but when you reach your summit, extend your hand to lift another. For the greatest wealth is not in what you have, but in the super-happiness of knowing you have made the world a little kinder than you found it.