RE: Choose Your Meaning Carefully
I'm very moved to hear of your housing project. Thank you. There is a quote from I think the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (which i can't find so my paraphrasing must be incomprehensible even to google lol) that basically says "if you want to help people you can't love the people you have to love the doing". Although I feel like you really have to love both (loving someone is the only way to understand what kind of help is desired), I know a lot of us empathetic people have a hard time with putting enough value on physical things to create help in the physical world- even though we live here too haha . It is also hard to whittle down where to start. I have tried to do that as I got older- just choose one aspect and give it enough attention to give it some real purchase, and seeing other people's successful projects is always a welcome boost :) I have a friend in detroit who is focused on ending homelessness there in his lifetime, he is a very dedicated guy, and I'd love to get any information on your project to share with him for ideas. I've also been working on getting him on here, but you know how it goes - busy busy busy :)
I’m surprised at the source of that quote, but yes.
For your friend, I’d say that if this is his first time building out a project, then don’t start from scratch. Partner with a team that has experience. I partnered with a group called Self-help Housing. They took care of all the permits and government relations for me. I just had to be on the ground, getting the mortgages, finding the families, applying for the grant, managing the ordering of what supplies when, managing the subcontractors, managing the families, and keeping separate books on each home for accounting purposes. It was a lot, but would have been impossible alone.
Yeah, Ms. Rand doesn't get enough credit in certain circles. I read her cold, so I didn't have any notions of what she 'stood' for and just took the information apart like I would anything. I really quite liked a lot of her thinking, and it may be that's she's taken out of context or sort of became a caricature of her work (like everyone does eventually I guess haha). My friend is older, in his late 40's or early 50's so I'm not sure where he has tried yet, but I'll pass along the info for sure, thank you :)