Novogratz’s journey to bridge the gap between rich and poor in an interconnected world has turned to focusing on her personal philanthropic achievements in the second half of the book. The first half of the book focused on her start to bridging the gap, but in the second half we see Novogratz’s ideas coming to fruition. In her return to the Eastern hemisphere after attending business school, Novogratz is able to fulfill her dreams of helping small businesses grow and succeed. Through her journey, I found the level of care for others exemplified by the African people after the genocide to be admirable. In addition to the respect Africans held for one another, I found the successes of the Acumen Fund and the way that Novogratz describes pursuing …show more content…
Rather than using the traditional charitable approach, Novogratz reinvented philanthropy by using business models to in turn reduce the dependence people living in poverty have on charity. Novogratz coined the term ‘patient capital’ which was the way she brands her investments that are a happy medium between charity and business investment. Her idea of patient capital was successful because she was able to instill independence among small business owners in underdeveloped countries. The independence allowed for these businesses to grow in scale as well as supporting the families who ran them and providing economic opportunity for the community. Each of the Acumen Fund loans mentioned in the book was a story of success, with a few setbacks here and there. The successes of these small businesses have created emerging leaders in under developed countries as people are starting to see that they can improve their socioeconomic status with the motivation to make their idea a success story. Novogratz’s determination to achieve her goal of creating a microfinance institution came to fruition in order to bridge the gap between the rich and the