I'm Concerned for Your Future, Not Your Past

When I conduct the interviews for project Five-Star, I'm likely to get a wide variety of backgrounds. Some of them have spent time in prison, some have done drugs, drank alcohol to excess or wasted money gambling.

I've wasted my share of my life. I have never taken drugs, drank much alcohol (I hate the taste, to be honest) never spent time in prison (though a few of you might think I belong there).

I have gambled in my past. Even now I avoid casinos because if I go in, all my money goes out. So I have had somewhat of a tendency for addictive behavior.

But when I choose the participants, I'll be looking past their past (yes, pun intended). I don't care if they used to take drugs, if they used to drink until they passed out, if they used to blow a paycheck on a single night of binge drinking and whoring. I don't care what their sexual persuasion is (just don't come on to me, please).

I care about the here and now. Don't come into my classroom drunk, high or filled with amorous thoughts. Come prepared to learn. Come prepared to take what happened in the past and leave it behind. Come prepared to change. Even if you've already changed, I'll change you more.

Leave your prison mentality at the door. Leave your gangsta raps in the gutter. Leave your pants that are sagging - well, pull them up. Come dressed for success. If you don't have the clothes, just maybe I'll have the funds to donate the clothes to you. Maybe I can reach an agreement with a clothing store to give you a suit or two at no cost to you and a lower cost to Project Five-Star.

Come with a clean shirt and a tie. I know the shelter has a laundry, use it.

Don't try to lie to me. I've told a few lies and heard a lot more. If you don't want to tell me the whole truth during our interview, that's okay. But I can't help you if you hide things from me. If I accept you, and it turns out you did 10-20 for burglary, I can't help you get a job. If you're honest, though, and do the work I ask you to, and prove to me that you've changed, then I'll stand behind you and put my reputation on the line.

I'm concerned about your future. I want you to get that great job doing something you like with decent pay and a chance for advancement. I want to see you get an apartment or even a house to call your own, in a decent neighborhood. I'd like to see you get a car. We all want the best life we can get. We all want to do things we enjoy rather than be stuck somewhere for minimum wage just waiting for the shift to end so we can go back to a dingy apartment in a rough neighborhood, filled with the temptations that got us into this mess in the first place.

We'd all like to be as far from that as possible. Me included. So come prepared.

And you! The one reading this article who has all that stuff that we homeless only dream about! You, with the fancy car, the six-figure income and the large bank account, who tells people like us to get a job. Put your hand in your pocket, pull out your wallet and GIVE until it hurts, because all it takes is one bad stock, one bad investment, and you're in the same boat as tens of thousands of us who struggle to survive.

And if that happens, I'll reach my hand out to you and give you the same opportunity I give everyone else.

Don't Do Anything Halfway

This is another in a string of posts of what I hope to accomplish with Project Five-Star. In this post, I'll examine the ethic I hope to instill into the project, as well as its participants.

The idea is: Five Stars. Not Four, not Three, certainly not Two or One. The goal is everything about the project will be the very best it can be.

That starts with me, I suppose. My past has been spotty at times, but I've never given anything but my best effort into whatever project I'm working on, whether it's writing, customer service, or any other aspect of my life.

Mind you, my best might not be as good as someone else's best. Or it might be better than most. If I have a task to do, though, I'll give 100% while others might say 'That's good enough.' Sorry, that won't work for Project Five-Star.

That's not to say I'm a perfectionist, far from it, but there's a difference between shoddy workmanship and something that functions, even if it's somewhat limited.

Say I'm looking for office space. Will I accept a dingy, small office just to get a better price? No. The groups I'll be leading need space and air.

Say I'm looking to feed my participants. Will stale donuts and a few 2-liter bottles of soda suffice? No. We've all been through bad, stale food. We want the best. Caviar? No. Fresh made sandwiches? Sure! A gallon of O.J.? Yeah, baby! Who wouldn't want that?

Now that I've got a clean, airy place to hold meetings, and fresh, healthy food to feed my 'peeps,' what next? Do I lecture them while they snooze?

Well, I hope to make the classes interesting enough so that no one feels the need for sleep. No one sleeps in my class and stays with the program. But that's as much my fault as theirs. So I intend to get them involved, play musical chairs often enough to keep them awake and take frequent 'stretch' breaks.

Let's say that we somehow raise enough money to go to phase 2, which involves training homeless men and women to build an administrative building and the first of 4 dorms. Do we use inferior tools? Do we use inferior materials? Do we use inferior and dangerous tactics to cut corners and raise the buildings? No. I intend to hire someone who can teach them how to build and use the tools we provide. I intend that no corners will be cut to save a little bit of money. It's your money, after all, that I'm using. Would you want it used improperly? Neither do I.

In the end, the higher standards we hold ourselves to will show in the work we do. I have to teach every participant to take pride in the work; to dress professionally; to act professionally. This is the only way that we - all of us - can drag ourselves out of the gutter, get to our feet, and stay there.

Project Five-Star is no place for those who want to just get by.

Thank you for reading!

Michael Fox, Founder, Project Five-Star