Philadelphia Teen With Autism Injecting ‘Breath Of Fresh Air,’ Hope To Community With Booming Landscaping Business – CBS Philly

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A 19-year-old man who is overcoming obstacles to become an entrepreneur is getting a boost. His community is behind him all the way.

The idea came to Justin Rink pretty quickly.

“I’ve seen other people doing it and I thought that the amount of people they got, I thought I could make a lot of money doing this,” said Justin Rink, with JMR Landscaping.

Starting with two, maybe three lawns, Rink began mowing and edging yards in his Morrell Park neighborhood.

A great story tonight

19 year old Justin is autistic, but doesn’t allow anything to hold him back. He started his own lawn care business a month ago and is up to 15 clients. His neighbor wanted to take it to a new level so he made him banners, shirts and business cards to expand pic.twitter.com/l16SZzKs85

— Dan Koob (@DanKoob) June 26, 2020

His neighbor, Chris Bird, saw an opportunity in the young entrepreneur, to show his own son there are no limits to one’s capability.

“He’s autistic, like my son. My son is 7 years old and autistic. So to see Justin being 19 and trying to make something of himself, it’s a breath of fresh air,” Bird said.

“And next thing I know, he’s telling me to cut his. And that’s how all this came upon,” Rink said.

“There’s definitely a connection there. Justin looks at my son and understands, ‘I used to be that way.’ He says it all the time. ‘I used to do that,’” Bird said.

Bird went to social media to brag about the quality of Rink’s work.

Bird and a friend ordered him custom banners, business cards and T-shirts to turn Rinks’s idea into JMR Landscaping Service.

“It was supposed to be a surprise but Justin actually seen it on the thing. He hit me up a couple days later saying ‘hey! Where are my shirts at?” Bird said.

Rink says his business has grown so rapidly in one month he’s now up to 15 customers.

“That means something to me, to see Justin doing so well,” Bird said.

A father pointing his son toward a role model. A mind that proves anything is possible.

“I was like you don’t know how much this means. And not gonna lie, I was — what do they call it? I was like blushing hard,” Rink said.