In this iconoclastic book, entrepreneur, and inventor Paul Polak explodes the "Three Great Poverty Eradication Myths": donations alone will end poverty, national economic growth will end poverty, and Big Business will end poverty. These failed top-down approaches contrast sharply with the grassroots approach Polak and International Development Enterprises have championed: helping the dollar-a-day poor earn more money through their own efforts.

Polak describes how he and others have developed innovative, low-cost tools to help impoverished rural farmers use the market to improve their lives.

Throughout the book Polak tells fascinating stories about the people he and IDE have helped, especially Krishna Bahadur Thapa, a Nepali farmer who went from barely surviving to solidly upper middle class.

Out of Poverty offers a new and promising way to end world poverty, one that honors the entrepreneurial spirit of the poor themselves.