I used to. Now I am more selective as there are a lot of people who simply are a bag of hammers when it comes to planning and especially to their own lives. When things don’t turn out in their favor they are quick to blame bad luck or others for their misfortune. The key here is “mis ’fortune”. By this I mean just that…their gamble didn’t pay off and it’s everybody’s fault but their own.
I had a similar story with new neighbors opening up their new coffee shop in town. I rode my bike by the new shop and I stopped in to say hi. It is 6 pm the night before their grand opening and it looked like a bomb had gone off. Nothing was painted, floor not mopped, boxes yet unpacked and two harried neighbors and a handful of friends scurry about. I asked if they needed any help and they said an emphatic ”YES!” So I went home changed into work clothes grabbed every tool I could carry and went back with my kids to help out mostly to demonstrate to my sons what it meant to help people out when help is needed. We started to patch the walls and prime them and 10 pm I took the kids home and came back and painted the entire store front inside myself including 2 bathrooms. Just like the TV shows….6 am all the furniture was in place and the first customers walk through the door. I felt great, the kids felt great for helping out…and a couple of nights later I came to an open mike night there and saw the neighbors behind the counter and asked for an espresso and they said that will be $2.50 please. Not even a thank you for your help was ever muttered they even made announcements that morning at the grand opening and thanked their friends and family for all their help but not the neighbors and 2 sons who kicked in a massive dose of elbow grease to make their place presentable. I later found out they were silver spooners who just were ungrateful people who were horrifically bad managers of money and their time. The shop lasted 9 months and they lost everything they and their families invested.
My moral of the story is they didn’t need my help…I didn’t see that at the time. They would have simply had to open their shop with scummy walls and painted after hours on their own time. I now focus my philanthropic efforts on Ma Nature who can always use my help and the local shelter where there are people who are truly grateful for anything you can reach out to them with.