Back in the early to mid 1900's it wasn't uncommon to see a man shoe shine a business man's shoes. In most cases, a shoe shiner made more money on his own than working in the fields or in a sweatshop. Nearly 100 years later in a park in a park in a popular city, a man walks around with an old paint buck that he uses for his seat; underneath his arm is his tool kit to repair any man's shoe and add a little sparkle in their step.



This man receives a lot of stares and sometimes dirty looks from people who wonder, 'How can he stoop so low to shine someone's shoe'. This is how he makes his living. Young men dressed in Brooks Brothers Suits with cufflinks or shades of black and grey slacks with cashmere sweaters (business casual). As they walk into the park to enjoy the little quite that's left in this big city, they whip out their palm pilot to view their stock status before a man interrupts their piece to ask to do a shoe shine.

Then young man accepts even though he just purchased his Kenneth Cole shoes yesterday. 15 minutes pass and this young man whips out his palm pilot once again to email his secretary to cancel his last appointment, he's getting his shoes shined.

It's 12:30 in the afternoon and believe it or not, this shoe shiner has already earned $100 for the day and he has only been shining shoes for 2 hours. That young man made $30 in the past two hours...go figure. Actually, the shoe shiner made more in 2 hours than some of the people who gave him dirty looks as they passed by.

This man may be a shoe shiner but he is in control of his own destiny...his 'career destiny'. He sets his own hours where as the man that's getting his shoe shined and has to answer to someone. Not the shoe shiner. Let's say that the shoe shiner consistently shines 3 to 4 people per hour for the amount of $20. Let's say he works 8 hours straight, the same amount of time the young man works in his posh office building. 8 hours at 3 people per hour is a total of $480 dollars. The shoe shiner is only $120 away from earning the young man's weekly salary gross amount.