What A Single Act Of Kindness And A Homeless Man Can Teach Us

If this story doesn't restore your faith in humanity I don't know what will. The story itself is quite simple, man loses job and home becomes homeless, then meets another man who offers him the choice between receiving $100 or 16 free lessons on how to code. The lessons we can all learn from this story are numerous and that's where things become more complex. Check out the lessons learned below the video:

Lesson #1, just because a person is homeless doesn't mean they're lazy or worthless. 

You see, Leo Grand the homeless man in this story lost his job selling life insurance and then lost his home due to being "priced out" -- that is he could no longer afford his rent when a new apartment complex built near his place caused his rent to increase.  

Lesson #2, there are some people out there who still care.

Looked upon as a modern day good Samaritan local programmer Patrick McConlogue saw Grand and decided to perform a random act of kindness which as a result can potentially change Grand's life for years to come.

Lesson #3, not all homeless people are out to get money

When faced with the choice between $100 or free coding lessons Grand's choice shattered many stereotypes about the homeless; one of which is they only want money for alcohol or drugs. He was thinking in the long term when he chose the coding lessons and wisely so. McConlogue started giving him lessons daily and even gave him a Chromebook and books to learn with.

Lesson #4, homeless people aren't dumb

Within about 3 months or so of training, Leo Grand put his training to use and developed an app that can potentially kill two birds with one stone: provide a solution to the earth's carbon emissions problem and hopefully will put a few bucks in his pocket. Grand's app Trees for Cars is a carpooling app that will help lessen the amount of cars that are on the road thus reducing CO2 emissions.

Lesson #5, a single random act of kindness can change the world

Acts of kindness are like stones thrown in a pond -- in the same way the stone causes an initial splash and then ripples that reach the shore, an act of kindness can cause a splash in someone's life which can then have a ripple effect that will positively impact other people's lives as they'll be inspired to do something nice for someone else.    

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