Okay, let's get the
bad news out of the way first. Both of my interviews today---the
first with KebabTime and the second with Pars Deli---got cancelled.
Sefa of KebabTime no longer had time and Kambiz of Pars Deli had
power at his restaurant go out. I rescheduled that one, and thanked Sefa.
This happens,
and comes with everything. What to do? Look on the bright side and
keep going. I made changes by picking a part of a street in downtown
Austin to work.
This picking of
sections of a street to work may have some of you wondering how
I do that or how it works.
I am doing all this
without knowing any owner beforehand. To do this well, I need faith and
some understandings.
1. Faith that
at heart we are all the same.
2. Know that we are all
need help.
3. That I have
something some owners don't have, and we are better off through
trade.
4. That with
goodwill, honesty, clarity, and diligence on my part I will be
heard---owners will listen.
5. A win-win
trade leaves me no ground to be ashamed of putting forth my idea. I
go win-win.
6. That even
if I fail, I will come away bettered.
7. That I will
be rejected by some---and that's okay: I am not for everyone, and everyone is not for me, and often I can only find out by presenting my idea
first.
With this faith and
understandings, I take to every street with a clear conscience and a
genuine desire to help. This approach has made this project greatly
worthwhile for me, and the response has been warm.
I have turned cold
meetings into warm ones. These folks are not strangers, but only
friends I am yet to know, I have confirmed.
So after every
street, I come away with at least an appointment set, or a request to
call back.
So I worked a
section of a street with businesses, and came away with business
cards to email the owners. This happens, too. After, I sat down to work a bit on the
look of the blog. If you pay attention, you will notice all the pages
on the blog have been moved to the top, above my purpose statement.
I also treated
myself to about 5 or 6 glasses of cranberry juice at the restaurant
where I stopped to work on my laptop. When I have interviews, I often
carry my laptop in my backpack.
Having planned to
see the doctor that day, after my interviews and prospecting, I
walked from the restaurant to the clinic, which was about 5 or 6
blocks away.
All's well, the
doctor assured me, and took the time to play around with some of the
folks in the waiting area. Most of the folks there were hispanic, and
I took the opportunity to work some more on my spanish speaking
skills. An enjoyable time, overall, at the doctor's.
Also, I impressed some of them with my below average fluency---I met folks from Cuba, Mexico, and
Honduras, all spanish speaking countries, and was able to make small
talk with them.
Night fell, and I caught the 3 and 24o bus, and after an hour and a half, was home.
On to Day 18.
