(this lengthy post is a story, an amazing, never ceases to stun me sequence of events in my life, true story)
(Okay, that’s me 30 pounds ago - I LOST the 30) leaning over to shake author and TED Global Speaker Dan Pink’s hand after my TED talk in Oxford, England in 2009.)

Never say never because HOPE ALWAYS FINDS A WAY.
By that I mean never say miracles never happen. Never say “It won’t get better.” Miracles happen and it does get better. And yes, “Hope does find a way.”

Three years before that photo was taken I was living in a van in a Walmart parking lot - one of America’s invisible homeless. See my TED video here.

But I’m skipping ahead. I got to TED through a very circuitous route, one even the best writer couldn’t invent. Truth is stranger than fiction!!

Several years ago, shortly after having gotten OFF of the street (thanks to a well-timed remark by former journalist and Senior Vice President of NBC, Tim Russert) I signed up with elance.com. I began ghost writing ebooks for strangers through that site. I won a bid from a buyer who wanted me to “Write a book like Seth Godin.” I had no idea who Seth Godin was, but I Googled him, went to Barnes & Noble to spend the day reading all the books of his they had. I bought one - something about a Red Fez. And I studied his style and his voice and I wrote the ebook, made a couple hundred bucks and that was that.

I also signed up for Seth’s blog because I liked what he had to say about purple cows and business and being remarkable. Then I noticed he had some sort of contest or internship thing going on so I sent him my application and a letter and was shocked when he personally responded. The deadline had passed, but he didn’t blow me off or send a canned email. We chatted via email a few times, he seemed authentic and so when he invited readers to buy his book Tribes and sign up for a social network by the same name, only with three “i’s” (Triiibes.com) I literally scraped together my last $15 dollars or whatever and bought the book. I came so close to choosing groceries over the book, but something told me to buy the book. It changed my life.

Long story short - I thrived online in Seth’s new social media group http://triiibes.com, and I finally found the creative, passionate and authentic people and voices I’d needed for so long. One of those folks told me about a contest a friend of Seth’s was having and sent me a link to the site. I entered. Seth’s friend, Dan Pink, author of Drive, and The Adventures of Johnny Bunko (the book I wish I had written since I live my life by those six lessons) turned out to pick me as one of three finalists for the contest. The “winner” would have to get the most votes - first prize was a trip to TED Global. I was only vaguely aware of what TED was, but I urged friends to vote for me. It was a very close contest. Then, at the last minute Seth, unasked by me, stepped in and asked his readers to vote for me and I won by a landslide. Amazing. I won an all-expense paid trip to TED Global in Oxford, England courtesy of Dan Pink. Then another opportunity popped up - submit a story idea for a talk for the chance to be selected to SPEAK at TED! I was selected. The stars aligned. My friend Patty Newbold listened to me scream, “I’m speaking at TED!!!” for about 20 minutes and then promptly pushed me to write and rewrite and rewrite my speech until I had it as good as she imagined I was capable of. (I wrote it in my van of course - the one I’d been homeless in for almost 18 months).

THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS LONG POST!!!

The TED talk was very well received, which put me in contact with some amazing people, including Bob Poole, who introduced me recently to Tim Brownson who, along with co-author John Strelecky wrote and are giving away one million paper back books to people who are homeless, unemployed, underemployed, sick, disabled, recovering from illness or surgery or who just plain need a hand up, not a hand out. He thought we might have something in common - like helping people. We did.

By the way, if you are a charity or other organization that works with folks like that - you can get a case (or more!) of the books free - just by paying shipping charges. You can’t sell them - there’s a printed disclaimer on the book they’re not to be sold. But you can change a life by giving them away. $20 pays for a case of 60 books. Or buy a book for yourself for $25 and that $25 goes to pay for the printing of more books.

Serendipity has no end. It keeps building and building. I came home from the gym one evening and found an urgent message from Rabbi Issamar Ginzberg - who lives in Israel, but whom I met through HARO (Thank you Peter Shankman) when I responded to one of his requests for help. The Rabbi had purchased a “I Wear Your Shirt” day through I Wear Your Shirt, and he couldn’t use it. He explains all this through his blog post today - PLEASE click through and read it.

He asked if I knew anyone who could, and of course I thought of TIM!!! So the Rabbi graciously and generously GAVE his day to Tim to promote “How to Be Rich and Famous” - the giveaway to help people. I told Christina Ciani about it, Christina is an amazing writer, single mom and author of her most recent book “F-Bombs for Single Moms” (It’s not what you think, so check it out. F = Frugal, F=Fun, F = lots of things besides, well…you know.) Well, she got all excited and SHE bought a couple of cases of books and started handing them out…and then posted photos of the people she gave them to on her blog!

So, all this HELPING people is spreading…a LOT. And we need YOUR HELP to make it spread even more. Please tweet or post any of our blogs about Tim’s book to your people, your blog, your facebook page and help us help people who truly want to change their lives. Tim’s book is fantastic - awesome and the best step-by-step method for becoming happy (and even rich) that I’ve ever read. I’m not getting paid to help distribute this book. Tim and John are paying for it out of their pocket, and all of us, the Rabbi, Christina, Tina Stull (a Christian, female drag car racer) and Stand-Up for Kids.org (helping homeless kids get off the street) are all helping get the books out there. If you don’t want to hand out books, then please donate $5, $10 or $20 to Tim’s site so we can send those organizations cases of books so THEY can give them out.

What begin as a simple request to “Write like Seth Godin” has become an amazing journey across the world to help others. Please blog, tweet and keep sharing the message of hope. I had it and look what happened! From living in a Walmart parking lot to speaking at Oxford at TED Global, to reaching thousands of people around the U.S.A - because like I said in my talk, “HOPE ALWAYS FINDS A WAY!!”