A Homeless Man, A Desktop, & Starbucks

 It’s amazing to me that sometimes the people who accomplish the least are the ones with the most at their disposal. Yet the ones that seem to knock it out of the park tend to be those with everything to lose, who are down and out, but somehow pull out a home run. This seems especially true of the make money online crowd. You have all these people with time, resources, money, experience, etc on their side, yet they never seem to make much of anything out of their efforts.

starbucks bum computer desktop

Image from ChrisDiclerico.com

What got me to thinking about this was a story I came across today that floated around the Internet a few years ago. It featured a young, homeless dude in New York City (or San Diego, depending on which version you read) who set up a consulting business using a desktop he found in a dumpster and public wifi at places like Starbucks. He would drag his desktop and CRT (yes, CRT!) monitor into the coffee shop, plunk it down on the table and go to work.

ZERO overhead. Now that’s some pretty clever thinking.

No idea how much he was making or what became of him, but the thought of even a homeless dude being able to set up shop and generate money online has stuck with me since I first read the story. I find it motivating and inspiring.

Some points that jump out at me:

1. Anyone, and I mean ANYONE can be successful online and make money. Young or old. Fat or skinny. Dumb or smart. Educated or drop out. Heck, if a bum can do it, YOU can do it. It may seem like you’re a long way off from where the person featured in the latest success story is at, and you probably are, but that doesn’t mean you can’t accomplish what they have. The Internet continues to be the great equalizer affording everyone the opportunity to get some skin in the game with darn near the same chance of success across the board. It boils down to putting some action steps together and going for it. If you want to be the next “big” thing online, you can be. Period.

2. People need to focus on what they DO have, rather than what they don’t. Again, just another reason potentially successful people who never quite make it put on their lists for why they can’t do something. You don’t need the latest computer, the fastest server, another application, or some new affiliate marketing course. You need to apply some brain power to what you do know using the tools you have and get yourself out there. Sure the latest tools, tips and tricks can help, but they aren’t required. I would venture to guess that 90% of the people consuming the latest courses on making money online already have enough in terms of knowledge and equipment to start generating money online. We fool ourselves into thinking we need “just this one more thing” to be successful.

3. Determination is KING. What did Corey, the Starbucks bum, do when his laptop got stolen at a local shelter? He rustled up a thrown away desktop and CRT monitor, got it working for $47 and kept going. He was determined to make something work. I wrote down a simple quote from a Pay Per View course I went through a couple of years ago when learning the industry. In reference to doing $2,000 a day, the coach said “You can do it if you really want it”. That’s stuck with me and I’ve realized numerous times over even the last few years that it’s really true. Just takes determination and action.

My final words: If a bum can do it, so can you!