Having spent a lot of time walking around downtown Denver, downtown Indy, Las Vegas Blvd (“The Strip”), and several parts of KC I have been approached by lots of beggars over the years. I usually didn’t have anything to give to them and was always polite to them. I never saw the point of being mean or rude to somebody who obviously wasn’t “living the dream”. I also saw little value in engaging them in any sort of conversation – good or bad – anyway. What could I possibly learn?

Then I ran across this guy:

In an odd way he taught me some lessons about using social media:

1. Don’t be afraid to get out there – even if you’re not an “expert”.
This guy is not in the best position to be meeting new people. Yet instead of hanging out around dumpsters he was in the middle of a ritzy shopping area chatting with everybody who walked by. Since he isn’t a thin guy even for him putting himself out there must be having some degree of success.

There are several “social media experts” out there all dishing out what seems to be one size fits all advice. The advice is all excellent however it is all geared towards aspiring “social media experts”. If that IS your goal by all means do what they say. However some (perhaps in an effort to protect their own turf) have advised that unless you want to be like them you should avoid social media altogether. Being involved in some form of social media is becoming more important each day no matter what profession you’re in. Therefore unless you constantly offend people when you speak that’s bad advice. I am an engineer (not an aspiring writer) and began writing to differentiate myself from all of the other “Curtis W. Smiths” on the web. I have no intention of becoming a “social media expert”. Don’t be afraid to get out there…after all this guy isn’t.

2. Set realistic goals
I first encountered this individual while taking my daughter to Barnes and Noble. A couple weeks later while I was scouting out the KC Marathon course on my mountain bike I saw him again and took the above picture. Both times he was asking passersby “Can I have money for a down payment on a cheeseburger”. My initial thought was that it was a unique and memorable approach. On a planet getting more crowded each day standing out is important and this guy definitely does. However, he seemed to lack ambition. Was he trying to fool people into believing he just needed a little help? Let’s face it, he is sitting on a plastic bucket all day….he needs a LOT of help. He needs to just ask for the whole burger. This convinced me to move past just using Twitter occasionally to creating this site.

Someday I am going to buy that guy a cheeseburger to thank him for being so inspirational (actually I tried once but when I approached he was mumbling incoherently and swatting at something…must have been on a break from his sales pitch).