Keeping food on the table is job #1 through a career transition.

I had been hanging around home for nearly a week and knew that I needed to make some money while I figured things out. A friend offered to wash the windows of our house and reluctantly I agreed to help. What I learned surprised me.

With the proper equipment and technique, washing windows wasn’t the torture I had imagined. I borrowed  her equipment to help another friend launch a new Italian restaurant. I showed up with the bucket, mop and squeegees and soon ‘Bernadoni’s’ giant panes were ready for opening day. Through the sparkling glass I saw a Mexican restaurant across the street. Mmmmmm

I walked in with all the confidence of a professional and said, ‘I see your windows are dirty, I’ll clean them for ten bucks plus lunch.’

“OK” he said. Those words were the turning point for me. Three windows and fifteen minutes later I had ten dollars in my pocket and a burrito special on my plate.

For a hundred dollar investment, I had every thing I needed to go into the window cleaning business. My homemade business cards said “Clean Windows By Dan”.

It was easy to spot the storefronts with dirty windows. The sales pitch was over in fifteen seconds and sixty seconds later I was either working, or moving on to the shop next door.

I left my house in the morning, unemployed and with an empty money bag but came home at the end of the day with a couple hundred bucks, tired and feeling good. I knew that food was always going to be on the table.

Fifteen years later I still get an occasional phone call asking, “Is this ‘Clean Windows by Dan?”

Not anymore.

Dan Hennenfent is a Professional Life Coach helping people make career changes that move them toward service through ministry. Since December 1999, Dan has been the Executive Director of a non profit 501(c)3 Public Charity that serves the poor and disadvantaged. danhennenfent@me.com