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The Better Number

Phil Cooke, whom I highly respect, told me three years ago that I should not mention I was homeless. I agree that it probably hurts my personal brand in some way. Actually; one of the reasons I started this blog was to augment and enhance my personal brand but I just can’t seem to leave out that I was once a recycling engineer.  Since I started this blog I have probably written more on homelessness, or ministry to the homeless, then I have on marketing and excellance. It just must be part of me :)

This Friday I turn 13. August 24th marks the day I finally walked off of Hollywood Blvd and into Hollywood and Vine Recovery Center. Why I say finally is because I had “visited” twice before yet this time I “got it”. I like this birthday so much better because 13 is a lower number then my chronological age and its awesome commemorating this tremendous accomplishment. It truly is the road less traveled!

Most people do not understand addiction. Serious addiction! This week I was reading one of my favorite blogs at LifeChurch.tv, I really respect how open Senior Pastor Craig Groeschel is in his posts. It takes a lot of courage to be so transparent. This week he started a 4 part series on addiction. Of course, this is a great week for me to do a little introspection and reading these posts made me think of all the addictions in my life

I can so much relate to being addicted to “crisis management”. I literally love the feeling I get when I am able to solve an impossible problem. I even know why my smartphone is called a “crackberry” and I can relate to much of what is written by everyone who responded. If you haven’t yet mosey on over to LifeChurch.tv and you’ll discover some amazing posts written by some very courageous people

We all are addicted to something. What are you addicted to?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 3:37 am and is filed under Blogs, Change, Character, Community, Homeless, Just Me, Leadership, Learning, Life's Lessons, My Big Mouth, Personal Growth, Recovery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • http://philcooke.com Phil Cooke

    If I recall, my comment was in respect to a specific issue where it wasn’t appropriate. But the truth is, if you feel that your past as a homeless person informs your work, or could be the focus of your future work, then by all means, use it. Something so integral to your past is often a critical tool in shaping a future brand for a person.

  • hardlynormal

    Thanks Phil,

    I am still wrestling with all this. As you advised me it is best to focus on one thing and become good at that. I guess I am still trying to figure out what that one thing is. I have a friend who works in secular marketing and she advised I should be the “voice of the homeless” which is far in the other direction.

    It really is not an easy call. Sometimes I am proud of the tenacity it took to get to where I am and sometimes I embarrassed that I was known as the “Lizard Man” on Hollywood Blvd.

    Most people do not understand and it is not just the challenge of homelessness. When my mother had a stroke most if not all of her friends stopped associating with her. Probably because they could not handle their own feelings of being uncomfortable!

    There are some people who still view me as the homeless guy and I will always be the homeless guy to them. I have found that 13 years later, if I don’t tell people about my past, they view me as the professional I am today. Being a single man homelessness is not a selling point to a potential significant other even though I don’t have any cooties. I seriously believe you are right about my past hurting my personal brand and I so appreciate you being honest with me.

    This blog is young and who knows what it will evolve into. Maybe I’ll start a separate blog. I really was not going to bring up my past here yet when we started the downtown homeless ministry a few weeks ago my heart broke and my passion to help people became stronger then my excitement for a blog about doing much with very little.

    I have always said I am blessed by being able to tie a Windsor knot and knowing how to truly dumpster dive. Don’t let the first layer fool you – the good stuff is at the bottom :)

    Hey, maybe that should be my tag line LOL

  • http://www.wahoo.com/ Wahoo

    Thank you for sharing!