In an early encounter with charity finances some years ago, I'd been asked to sit in with a group of trustees. I was not given a brief. A paper was circulated showing a deficiency of £44,000 on a turnover of £200,000. The plan was to sell a property they had a long lease on. The plan seemed vague and I asked what plan B was. There was no plan B, Plan A being foolproof.

Within 2 weeks plan A failed and the trustees scattered leaving me to pick up the pieces. I discovered that the true deficiency was over a million pounds, with no assets (the property actually had negative value). It took me 3 years after which I left behind a solvent charity. All spending over £10 had to be approved by me personally. (Mostly I said NO, very loudly.) I put in a few thousand pounds to help pay down debts, all of which I got back. 3 banks took major hits and a manager lost his job because he approved an overdraft of over £400,000 and failed to get any paperwork completed.

My main weapon in this, was my complete ignorance of insolvency issues. I hadn't a clue what to do, but I wanted to do the right thing. To me that seemed like paying off every personal and genuine business debt in full. But to the foolish banks and other big businesses I offered 10% in full and final. I remember now sitting in my car, hands trembling, as I dialled my mobile, making these silly offers to finance companies and banks and having people laugh at me. Eventually they all accepted but not without a fight.

There's 3 points to this story; the first is, don't let your ignorance stand in your way of your passion. I say this advisedly, but sometimes you simply have to step out in faith, you soon find out if God is with you or not. And you'll need to be a fast learner.  Secondly, maintain integrity. Do the right thing. Thirdly, remember that everyone has their own private Mount Everest they were put on earth to climb. Don't allow obstacles and impossibilities to detract you. As you climb the view does get better. After this experience I made it my life's work to help create safe places for charities and not for profits. More of that anon.

Go well, fail fast, learn fast. Get up stronger everytime you fall. Be gentle with yourself and others. Surround yourself with people who are better than you are that you can empower and be sure to give them the credit. And enjoy.

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