Working at a job a block away from a homeless shelter, I’ve had my fair share of interesting encounters with homeless people. I’ve tried to help some. Gone out to dinner, heard stories, even helped look for jobs for some.
Having been through a program like Praxis, it frustrated me seeing so many of these homeless people doing nothing. I think through all the things I could do to try and make money if I were tossed out on the street. Even simple things like offering to keep a block stretch of the street clean for the storefronts.
I forget often that the people who are on the street often fit into three categories.
- They’re under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol most of the time
- They have some sort of a mental disability
- They’ve hit rock bottom and lost everything they once had and are in no mindset to think constructively.
There’s a few outside of these, but this is the vast majority. For these people, they’re not thinking entrepreneurial-minded, they’re thinking “how can I get another beer,” or “how can I get a little money for a cigarette,” So many things that we might think are not right in the head if you were homeless, but that’s what these people have come to live by.
Today, one of them made my day. I had seen one guy before doing a similar thing, but he didn’t execute it quite as well.
The other guy placed himself in a place where traffic often stopped. All he had was a squidgy, a bucket, and some water in the bucket. He came over when I stopped my car at the light and asked if I wanted my windshield cleaned. Excited to see someone actually trying to do a little work to earn money, I gratefully gave this man some money to wash my windshield.
Today, I saw a man one-up this. I once again pulled my car to a spot that when hit at red always takes at least 1-2 minutes for it to turn green. A man on the side of the road, as soon as he saw I was stopping for the light, ran up to my car and just started going to town cleaning my windshield and side windows. He didn’t ask for money, he just did it.
Now, obviously this guy wasn’t sitting on the side of the road just hoping he could wash some people’s windshields for free. He clearly wanted to gain some money. But I almost guarantee you that this man made more than the first window washer I mentioned. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this man made the most money out of any homeless person in Austin today.
He took the “work for free” and “permissionless” mindset to heart. He was willing to work for free, and he was willing to do it without anyone asking him. As a result, I am sure almost every car, like myself, felt a great generosity towards this man who was doing work for free. So much so that we wanted to reward him.
If more homeless people could get in this mindset, the homeless community would be a different story. If the homeless community was as competitive as the tech industry in Austin right now. If you had to be creative about how you made money.
It’s possible. I saw it today. Now we just have to see if any of the others pay attention and start doing something similar.
Sadly, because of what I previously mentioned about the three categories, they may never understand the great benefits of being a creative peddler. But I hope and pray that they pay attention. They start seeing the benefits of providing value for others before you can expect it for yourself.
The city of Austin could be a different place.