When I started "Dave's Weekly Feed" a few months ago, I wasn't quite sure how this whole thing would evolve. I knew some weeks I'd have good solid information for you and other weeks, I'd have some crazy thoughts I would just want to get out of my brain and put them on paper.

Well, this may be one of those weeks with the crazy thoughts! It comes out of nowhere so get ready!

You probably know I do a fair amount of traveling, both for business as well as pleasure. And as far as I'm concerned, there is nothing better than visiting other cities and cool places that one would not ordinarily go.

But sometimes I just don't know what to do. In practically every major city that I go to, I encounter homeless people asking for money. Well, I'm not exactly sure if they are homeless. So I should just call them beggars to be respectful. But it's easier to call them homeless. And I think it sounds better.

It's funny, they never ask for food. Just money. I think if I were homeless, I'd ask people for food and clothes. Maybe even a place to stay on a cold or a wet night. Yeah, those would be the most important things to me. I know that most of the time when I give money to a homeless person, it goes towards cigarettes or alcohol. Unfortunate but true.

I wish I had more time to hang out with some of these beggars and actually talk with them. I'm sure each and every one of them has a story. And I really believe I could learn something from many of them. I'm not kidding... I really think I could. Reminds me of the time when Rich and I first started The Richards Report, some asshole dentist called us up and asked us what we grossed in our dental office. His reasoning was that if he made more money than us, there must be nothing he could learn from us. Pure shortsightedness and stupidity. We pretty much told him to keep doing what he was doing and not to bother us any more.

But back to the homeless. Most of the time these people are very nice and polite. If I say no to them when asked for money, they usually say something like "OK, have a nice day." I think that's the norm. But occasionally they can get very aggressive. I was in Chicago earlier in the year and it seemed as though wherever I walked in the city, someone would approach me begging for money. There was a guy whose home turf must have been around our hotel because every time I left the hotel, this guy would come up to me and ask for something. I remember saying no and he just continued to follow me as if he could get me to change my mind. He literally would continue walking with me making it clear that he would not accept no for an answer. Maybe he took the Homeless Boot Camp where they taught him he must ask at least twelve times to get a YES. It got so annoying at one point I stopped cold in my tracks, turned around, stared him right in the eyes and at the top of my lungs said "HEY BUDDY... BACK OFF." That finally did the job.

Screw people like that. Our relationship just didn't work out well. I like the homeless but not the aggressive ones. They give the homeless community a bad rap.

The other night I got out of my car in an area of North Baltimore when I spotted a very old man sitting in the rain on a small chair next to a building. As I passed by he asked if I could spare some change. I kind of lied, telling him that I had no money on me. I'm sure he knew I was lying. Not many people get out of a Volvo Cross Country with no money on them. It just usually doesn't happen that way. He probably knew that I had a lot of money on me. Enough money probably to buy him cigarettes for the rest of his life. But he didn't say anything else. And I just kept walking.

Actually, a few months ago I was walking down a street in Santa Monica where I was approached about every couple of minutes by someone asking for money. I think Santa Monica must have the greatest number of beggars per capita than anywhere I have been. After ignoring or saying no to the first fifteen of them, I became curious about the culture. So I stopped to talk to the next one who asked me for money.

He seemed like the typical homeless type person... he had a beard, fairly dirty clothes, and it looked like he was down and out. So as he asked me for money, I said "Hey look, you are about the sixteenth person who has asked me for money since I have been walking down this street. Quite honestly, if I gave money to everyone who asked me, I'd be broke by now. What is the policy for giving money to people asking on the street given the fact I cannot give to everyone? If I give to you, you'll be happy, but the other hundred people who ask me will be pissed. I would really like to know the best way to approach this whole thing. Do you guys have any policy manuals or any written material I can look over?"

Well, his answer was quite interesting. He said "What you have to do is find someone you like and give to that person and that's it. You don't have to give to everyone, just find one."

"But if I do that, should I explain to all of the others that I gave to someone down the street? Will they believe me?"

"No, you don't have to explain anything to them. Just keep walking if they ask you for money."

Well, I wasn't sure if this was advice that all of the other homeless people would agree with, but this guy was nice enough, so I decided to give him a little something. I think I gave him a few bucks. He was appreciative and I felt good about what I did.

We said our goodbyes, and I continued down the street. Within a minute, another guy asked me for money. Not listening to the advice of my last buddy, I explained "Sorry, but I just gave to someone else a few minutes ago," pointing to the area where the other guy was.

"Well, that is nice that you already gave, but could you please give me something too?"

I just kept walking. My one minute of feeling good had disappeared.

It's a tough call. What should one do when they encounter a homeless person? I do not like to see other human beings suffer. But is giving one homeless person a couple of bucks going to help anything, especially when there are tons more that are in the same position? I don't think it will help. It might even be a bad thing. I don't know.

But I have a new idea. I'm going to try it out and I'll report back when I see what happens.

So until next time, please take care!