Today we’d like to introduce you to Nathan Pupko.
Nathan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My journey started back in 2001; the year when I was born. Ever since I can remember I have been interested in both helping people as well as entrepreneurship and business. During my sophomore year in High School (which was last school year), I was taking a class called Intro to Business. Near the beginning of the year, Sarah Hernholm, founder of Doing WIT, came to my class to pitch her business which is a College level course for High School Students to learn Entrepreneurial and Leadership skills while launching and growing Social Impact Projects. This really interested me because not only was I going to have the opportunity to learn about business and entrepreneurship, but I was also going to have the opportunity to create my own business which was going to help people from my community. This is where I decided to create The Good Neighbor.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
To be completely honest, it has not been such a smooth road. When I started The Good Neighbor, it was originally intended to be a brick and mortar store that would resell high quality donated clothing at a very budget-friendly price for families and people living in lower socioeconomic classes. I was going through with this idea for around 2-3 months when I realized it wasn’t going to work because as a high school student I didn’t have any of the three things needed to create and start a brick and mortar; time, money, expertise. When I realized this, I pivoted to having The Good Neighbor be an organization that collects donated clothing as well as hygiene supplies to redistribute them in a more dignified manner to the homeless population of San Diego.
Last year, when I was having my first event, I decided to partner up with two people who have done these types of events before because I didn’t know how to host/set one up. For this event, I decided to only collect clothing. Anyhow, the night before the event, one of the people who I had partnered up with called me and told me he was not going to make it to my event because he was sick. Then on the drive to the location of my event, the other person who I had partnered up with (who had helped me find the location and reserve it), let me know that he also wasn’t going to make it because he had an emergency, as well as reserving the location for 9:30 at night instead of in the morning. So, on my way to my event’s location with 5 full cars of clothing and volunteers, my location was not reserved, and none of the people who had helped me were going to show up. Well, what was I supposed to do? I decided to still do the event and set it up on the sidewalk of a street. It ended up being a very successful and awesome event. The Good Neighbor ended up donating over 1,000 pieces of clothing to over 200 homeless.
The Good Neighbor – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The Good Neighbor is an organization that collects donated clothing as well as hygiene supplies for the distribution to the homeless population of San Diego in a more dignified manner. What sets up apart from others is that The Good Neighbor focuses a lot more on the dignified part, rather than just the donations side of things. I created The Good Neighbor with a vision of creating a way to be able to donate items in a manner that wouldn’t diminish someone’s dignity. There is not a specific thing that I am most proud of my business because I am proud of everything. I am proud of the amount of help and items that we have given, I am proud of the connections that I’ve made, I am proud of the people that I have met, I am proud of the number of people that have been interested in helping The Good Neighbor, I am proud of the hats that I have made, the Instagram and Twitter accounts, my website. I am truly proud of everything that I have and will accomplish with The Good Neighbor.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success is a very hard term to define. It’s like asking someone what the meaning of life is. It usually ends up being a personal response. Like for someone success might be becoming a millionaire, or being happy, or owning three cars, or helping someone. It varies depending on who you ask.
But to me, success is not giving up. Straight A students aren’t the definition of a successful student. If you are someone who isn’t good at math, as long as you try your hardest, do all the homework, ask questions, study for the tests, and truly give it your 100%, you are being successful. That also goes to being a businessman/businesswoman, teacher, doctor, or even a good person.
Every “successful” person has had to overcome struggles. For example, Michael Jordan once said “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
So as long as you try your hardest, even if you fail, you are successful because you didn’t give up. That is my only criteria; not giving up.
Pricing:
- The Good Neighbor Hats – $20
- Hygiene Kit Donation – $14 each
Contact Info:
- Website: www.the-good-neighbor.com
- Email: tgnorg@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/thegoodneighbororg/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TGNOrganization
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