Thursday, January 22, 2015

How could the city be different?

I bought Laundry World 11 years ago, while I was working as the City President for MidSouth Bank. My passion for living a significant life because of Jesus spurred this on, so I worked 2 jobs for a season (the laundry job exclusively on nights/weekends, which is work!), Now these 11 years later, I'm getting pretty good a the laundry thing.

What I didn't know would happen when I bought the laundries is how much I would learn about my city. The people I would meet and get to know via having a reason to hang out in a place a lot of lower-income also hung out.  I knew that I would make friends there and expected that part to be fun and rewarding, and it certainly has.

For example, here I am challenging a 21 year old former high school football star to do 10 clap push-up's with me. The other young men did not take me up on the challenge. #Fun

These young men just finished installing these 14 new washers at the Laundry World location in their neighborhood. You should see how proud they are of this accomplishment. One of the young men has worked for me as an Intern for a year or so, on and off. The other three are his friends. He has been talking to them about character growth, about work and how it is better than he expected.

That, my friends, is one important way a city gets different. Invest in one. Then they invest in others, learning that productivity beats idleness or victimhood , every time.

Let's see this kind of move replicated all over the place.