A $20 bill on the Riverwalk
One day I was walking my dog on the Tampa Riverwalk and passed a man holding a sign asking for money. I kept walking, found a spot where I could stop, and checked my wallet. I had a $20 bill and nothing else.
I said to myself, "I guess it's this guy's lucky day."
I turned around and walked back to him. I asked him his name. He said, "Uh... uh... Mark."
"Hi Mark, I'm Justin. It's nice to meet you." I handed him the twenty and told him I hoped he had a good night.
He looked stunned. As I walked away, a woman walked up behind me and gave him money too. I took that as a sign that I was supposed to do more of this.
Forty mattresses
For a while I had insomnia, and when I couldn't sleep I'd walk the Riverwalk at night. Every night I passed the Tampa Convention Center and saw people huddled on the concrete, trying to sleep in the cold, a few hundred feet from the wealthiest zip code in Tampa. It bothered me more every time.
So that night I went home and ordered forty inflatable mattresses with foot pumps.
The next week I walked up to a group of people living downtown and offered them. They were skeptical at first. I started showing them how the pumps worked, and one by one they came over and took one.
After I handed out the last mattress I went to eat at a restaurant five blocks away. A man outside asked me for money. I told him I didn't have any on me because I'd just been handing out mattresses.
"You're the guy that passed out the mattresses??"
I invited him to come in and eat with me. He said no, because he smelled and didn't want to make anyone uncomfortable. So I offered to buy him something inside and bring it out, and he took me up on that.
That was the moment I understood something about the people I'd been walking past. He was hungry, and he still put a room full of strangers ahead of himself. Most of the people I've met downtown are like that. More gracious than the people with homes.
Word had traveled five blocks in under an hour. That was the second sign. I've doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down since.
