Are you looking for a new way to make some money? Are you a self-starter? Do you like to work on your own? Do you like the outdoors? If you answered "yes," then maybe panhandling is for you.
Back in 2007 after years struggling to get by as a taxi driver living in my cab, I had some serious health problems. My sluggish lifestyle of working 14 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week, led to me gaining over 150 pounds and getting a serious bacterial infection called cellulitis. The first bout nearly killed me, because I didn't have health insurance, so I just lay in my taxi with a fever of about 105 for five days. I finally went to the emergency room, and luckily I was covered by some insurance for homeless people. Three days in the hospital and a week on my boss' couch, and I was back to the crazy taxi lifestyle.
I had that happen two more times that year, and went straight to the ER both times. On my last visit, the ER doctor told me that if I kept up my crazy taxi lifestyle of not enough sleep, bad food, no exercise, and high stress, I was going to die. "In months," he added, "maybe weeks." After another month in the cab, I decided I needed to quit. After four years of working 70 to 100 hours a week, paying $550 a week for the taxi and $300 a week for gas, I gave up. I rolled into the taxi yard, threw my stuff in my backpack, turned in the keys, and walked out onto the streets of Orange County, California with $15 to my name. I weighed 365 pounds, I could barely walk because of severe athletes foot (which is pretty funny when you think about it), and I expected to die within a few weeks. I started panhandling for food money, just asking people for change at bus stops or gas stations. I slept in the bushes. After a few days, I decided to "fly a sign" as we say in the panhandling business. A piece of cardboard, a pen I had in my pocket, and an off ramp, and I was in business.
Don't panhandle unless you're really homeless of down and out, OK?
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