The Homeless Man Who Offered ME Change

Let me share with you a short story that changed my life.

A couple years ago I was living in San Francisco with my pregnant wife and 1-year old daughter in an incredibly intense program for tech companies called 500 Startups. 

Every day was a grind to make progress with Ovation and man... I was working hard--I would leave early and often get home after my daughter went to sleep with no lunch breaks. 

One Saturday afternoon, and as a break between working, my family and I took a walk to grab some food. I was pushing the stroller and holding my wife’s hand, but honestly was lost in my thoughts of all that needed to be done for the business and feeling generally overwhelmed. 

It was then that I noticed a homeless man making his way straight towards us on the sidewalk. As he got closer, I saw him just...staring in an odd sort of way at us. He suddenly stopped right in front of the stroller and pointed directly at me. I was about to tell him that I didn’t have any change...but what he said next to this day gets me emotional. 

With his finger outstretched and his eyes piercing through me he said, “I hope you know how lucky you are.” 

And with that...he walked away. 

I stood there for a few seconds watching him in complete shock. 

Here I was with my beautiful little family, my health, a masters degree, a place to sleep, food to fill my belly, part of a world-class program, and running a company I loved helping customers I cared about. 

With how lucky I was, how could I have gotten so caught up in the details? 

As it turns out, that homeless man didn’t ask for change, but rather, he offered it instead. 

And so, I committed to change: I changed by spending more time with those that I love, I changed by getting less caught up in the unimportant, and I changed by being more grateful for that which I had.

I hope, that no matter how stressful your life may be right now (and I get it...we are all under a lot of pressure), that we can change our focus and take time to realize how lucky we really are! Because each of us is living someone’s dream.