Running a charity can be challenging. People think lack of funds are your biggest headache and truth is all I miss are hands. I miss hands to help me organize events, hands to help me ask money to corporates, hands to help me ask money to foundations, hands to write proposals, hands to help me think of creative advertising and campaigns, hands and brains that allow me to be less of a bottleneck and more of a CEO. I struggle, everyone knows that and it is hard to chose where to turn. I do have to check the accounts to see where funds need to go, where we still have them and who needs them now. But I also should be networking, reading about the industry, getting educated on all we could do. This week was my first week in tweeter, I did not even know how it worked and how powerful of an awareness tool it was. I should also be thinking of finally getting my hands around social return on investment and establish a framework for us to evaluate all our projects in measurable ways. I did a lot of that in Harvard, even structured a social bond, but now I struggle to find the time. The problem is that so much of it is still in my head, no matter how much I write. So I guess I just need to keep typing...
I heard what is likely to become one of my top 3 favourite quotes on a podcast on Friday. "Time is the only real democratic asset. We are all awarded the same time, it is what we do with it that distinguishes us". Now, I recognise that most of us need to work with survive and that is not democratic throughout. But on an equal opportunity basis, this is an interesting way of putting it. For many years I did not understand why MS thought my resume was so interesting. In fact, they chased me during the entire recruitment process, even though I had no idea of moving to London or Finance. I wanted to be a consultant and stay in Lisbon forever. But traditional consultants in Portugal saw nothing in me, and MS did not let me go. When I started screening resumes and hiring people a couple of years later is when I understood why I was different. TIME. I was truly different about what I did with my time. Not necessarily the basics - choice of degree or anything. But really ...
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