Homeless people know more about business than the average employee

This is true. They are better sales people than man people on this forum. Where I used to work, they were always around. I've seen them hustle a lot of savvy people.

The thing is that they don't apply their skills to something more beneficial.

Here in Bangkok, the mafia use them to hustle. Quite sad really.

Many also have the balls to fake a missing arm by hiding it in their shirt.

In Seattle we have a news papper called "The Real Change". It comes out each week, and is mostly a left leaning type of community newspaper. The homeless pay for their stack (I forget how much they pay 25 cents for each paper or somethign), and they stand on streat corners selling the paper for $1. A lot of people buy them and folks get use to their local guy.

But from what I see, they don't really hustle it very well. They are kind of shy, and usually just stand there motionless. I kind of feel like they should shout out the latest headline like back in the old days to try and sell more of them.

I often thought if it would work if I could put together my own small paper and see if they could sell them. Interesting idea for offline no?

Over all I think it's a good program, as they are doing something other than just beging for money. It helps them get back on track with their lives.

On a offtopic note Chilli Water? Is that real?! I love chilli how can i not know about this!!

Also just because the hustlers looks like he is homeless don't assume here is.

About 5-10 years ago the one local newspaper did a story on a local panhandler group. Seems the one guy was driving a brand new VW. Looks like the kindness of others can make you good money.

They did a show a while back, (I think it may have been 20/20) but the panhandlers were making about 40 grand a year. Crazy.

Last week I was approached by a girl claiming she hurt her shoulder and needed to catch bus home. I gave her $2 because she was way bigger than me and I was honestly scared. lol. Right after she got my money, she went up to my friends car and gave her the same BS. And this was in Waipahu shopping center - an area I'm usually never approached for money. They're spreading...

The smartest beggar I've seen was dressed in a dress shirts and pants,strolling around a popular clubbing district asking other late-night strollers for 2$ for coffee. At first sight, you would really think that he was a businessman that was short of small change.

You have to hustle to survive.. I've learned a lot from homeless people... a LOT.

Many of them have other problems, but there are some out there that really want to succeed and just came across bad times, doing everything they can to pull themselves out of that situation.

One guy in downtown St. Louis stands under a bridge, with his lexus parked down the road in a casino parking lot. He makes a couple hundred bucks an hour just asking for money.

A LONG time ago (40 years???) I bought a book that described the teachings of a pan handling school in (I think) NYC or vicinity. Fascinating! That, along with some friends of mine, has turned me into a cynic whenever I see someone asking for money on the streets.

So I would fully agree with the above comment that described these people as street smart! I don't know if they test signs per se, but when I see a sign that start getting duplicated, it makes me think of good marketers testing their response rate .

Marvin

Some of these homeless guys arent really homeless. When I see things like this, it really makes me think twice about giving homeless people even a dime. Why go blackhat when theres so many jobs out there?

Interesting point of view on the homeless.. while most people would say that they are in the state that they are in because they are probably BAD at business, you say the opposite. I guess it does take a certain degree of imagination to come up with so many ways to ask people for money.

Yes you are right. I have come come across lot of them, they give you all kind of stories to convince us.

Hi
I can see the point behind your post and I am not trying to be a kill-joy by not getting in the spirit of the thread...honestly Rick

....but....

Most of the tactics they use are manipulative, aggressive, dishonest, deceitful and play on our pity rather than actually 'wanting' us to give the money voluntarily. Apart from rare cases do we get the feel good factor....most of the time we feel conned (see posts in this thread).

So I don't really think that we can learn much from them about doing business to be honest.

However, I see the point that you are trying to make and feel a bit bad for raining on your parade

Gary

I totally disagree with you on this.

If you truly understand sales then you will understand the rule of thirds.

1/3 of the people you pitch will always say yes

1/3 of the people you pitch will always say no

and the last 1/3 will be on the fence.

It takes no skill at all to sell the first 1/3. Those are the people who you see homeless people getting change from. It's not because they have skills, (yes I understand there are exceptions) but it more than likely because those people are kind, or feel guilty if they don't offer change.

if you can show me a homeless person who can get change from the 1/3 that are on the fence then you are getting somewhere.

And it's not that they have more guts, it's that they have no other choice. If they don't approach people they don't eat, or for some of them if they won't get their drugs.

Having guts is choosing something that you don't want to do, you have the option of not having to do it, yet you still choose to do it.

Being stuck in a situation where you only have one option, one choice is not guts, it's limitation.

And if they had such insight as you say, then why are they still homeless?

If you have a steady job, it gives you some security, and people enjoy that. Homeless people probably don't have thing to eat, and their survival instinct makes them do bold things to get what they need to survive. I think that's the main difference.

So hungry makes people smart?

I think an addiction to money and sociopathic tendencies makes people good at sales.

This will sound weird, but 2 of the best salesmen I met turned out to be scammers. One guys name was "Al Demola", you can find a video of him on youtube. The guy is a short, fat, joe pesci looking dude. But when he is in homes with people, he knows how to close and does it better than anyone I've seen. This guy was also a total sociopath. I use to know him around 8 years ago and he hired a bunch of hot college girls to work in his office. They were also massive whorebags. He would buy these girls cocaine, take them on trips, bang them in the office, and he wound up closing the company down to open up another one. He would do this every 1-2 years then eventually he left NJ altogether.

But when I use to watch him sell in homes, the guy was amazing. He had balls like I've never seen before in my life.

Another scammer, his name is "Rich Leli". This guy is bringing in over a million a year by scamming people in the home improvement industry. He is able to do it because he's a sociopath, and has no emotions. That is a huge part of sales imo. As horrible as it sounds, people who get emotional do not do well in sales. I'm also not saying these sociopathic types are good at running businesses, they usually suck. But when it comes to sales/closing jobs/money, they excel.

Look at the speech Eben Pagan gave in his "Get Altitude" seminar, he talks a lot about how emotions get in the way of closing jobs.

Wallstreet also did a tests on investors who damaged a specific area of their brain that controls emotion. All these investors injured the same area of their brain, weren't able to feel emotion anymore, and became better investors.

So this will sound terrible, but I believe sociopaths make the best salesmen. Think of Ted Bundy. He could have made an incredible salesman, but instead he prefered necrophilia. To each his own I guess.

I knew a homeless who used to just hold and open doors for people at a 7/11. He made a lot of money doing that. I respected him because at least he did something for it, unlike most others who just beg for change.

imagination or desperation?

Because these people knows how to survive, how to make money out of a single dollar or even nothing at all. Their motivation is clearly simple they have to earn so that there must be something or at least enough food to put in their stomach or else they will starve to death.

I hate the windshield washer guys at intersections. By washing without your permission, they've invoking what Cialdini called, "reciprocity." And it's powerful. I feel I HAVE to give them something even though I may be angry about it LOL

I suppose you've seen this?

Hello fellow warriors,

I'm born and raised in Eastern Europe... There are no better beggars in the world than ours. Trust me!

Some own houses bigger than the local shopping centers. Some drive the latest German cars and so...

Their conversion rate is way higher than any of our sales letters.

I've seen a show a couple of weeks ago, some policemen arrested a guy who made about 400$ in 2 hours just by hanging around in a crowded parking lot. he was always dining in the best restaurants in town and had his own apartment. Take note that some people back there earn $300/month from a 9 to 5 job.

Did you know that good 'spots' in France and other West European countries are sold for up to $100.000? But trust me, you get a damn good ROI on that. It's like owning #1 spot in Google for a highly competitive niche.

Make no mistake, some have it better than us. And we work hard as hell, sometimes ruining our health in front of the PC.

All the best to you. Cheers!

Dan

I cannot really deny your presented facts. Sometimes I really think about it. They are very creative in their ways of earning money. Their earning styles changes very frequently with time. An average employee just think about his job and do not get enough time to think about anything else.

some homeless people are funny, i know this guy makes a lot of money every day.
his sign said " I bet you a $1 you will read this!"
well i of course lost the bet so i had to pay up lol.
well I didn't have to but he made me laugh so why not.

They want money!

I think the basic observation here is that people who for whatever reason have had to learn to hustle make good employees because they have the ability to think on the fly and make decisions without needing mountains of information or lots of management. This is the same reason people who are from less affluent backgrounds, thrive in corporate environments because they simply "out hustle" their peer group. Sometimes of course the skill can be used for petty schemes such as getting money for food or tricking people for what ever reason but if you look at the typical successful Entrepreneur you will see, at the basic level a "Hustler". People who did not have to develop the skill will always be at a disadvantage on a level playing field against people who have developed the skill. Remember, Bill Gates hustled IBM into paying for something he didn't even have, but knew where to get Also, look at Steve Jobs, one of the greatest "Hustler's" of all time, and the list goes on.

Hustler's make the world go round

-h

Well, I know some of the LA bums here are just as obnoxious as the people giving them money. People just drive up here to gas stations and pretend to "have just run out of gas". It just so happens that I get at least 2 people a day that "run out of gas" just as I am getting mine.

Then when I offer to give them one gallon, they get angry.

I've even had given a guy a whole new loaf of holiday bread who was about to dumpster dive just to look at the bread and walk away from it.

Even the bums nowadays have a minimum request amount..lol

Bums Creative? = Yes

Hard Working? = No

yes, you said right.

many times i met people asking for money and they convenes you by telling stories.

They don't work on commission. They keep it all. In exchange for nothing.