Yesterday I took my team for a city tour. Our guide was gambler and alcoholic homeless guy. It is part of a project trying to help homeless people, for us I wanted to experience our city from other perspective and maybe get some food for thought – and did we get plenty!

From all interesting things I have learned I want to share with you 2 pieces of philosophy our guide shared with us. 

When we met him and he started to talk, we stood around him in a circle listening to his stories. Then he walked to the centre of the circle and said: “You know, sometimes someone said that circle has 360 degrees. Now when I am standing in the middle you (pointing at the person standing in front of him) see me from one angle, but person behind me sees me from different angle and all others see me from different angles, but nobody here sees me from 360 degrees…”

Later on, when he was showing us secret places of a main train station we stood around him again and he stepped into the circle again and said: “You see, I am standing now in the centre of this circle. And I can see this situation from 2 perspectives. Either you are my friends and I am protected by you and have nothing to worry about or you are my enemies and I am helpless in this circle as you can jump on me and kill me…”

Two very interesting and strong moments (out of many) that we had yesterday during our tour. And what is my take from this?

i) don’t judge too quickly, you only see person / situation from one angle

ii) take care and build a circle that surrounds you well, so you can feel secure and protected by your friends

May this guy share his wisdom with many more people.