“What did you say?”

“That “real world,” disciplined approach and thinking, I mean, that had been so impressive when I’d first encountered you. If I come work for you, this is what I propose:  you let me build up programs, instead of following the grant-by-grant approach your foundation has been taking, and then recruit professional managers to manage them.  I can finance the management with the same principles as you used in your finance days.  Other foundations or donors who want to come in, pay a fee; anyone wants an intro to our contacts, they pay a fee; our programs lead to sustainable investments, we get rewarded.  You can’t run a foundation with just good intentions, Bette, and one-off grants.  You need programs, and managers to manage them; you need structure, you need discipline.  You’ve already got a Board; that’s fine.  But you need day-to-day management.  And for that, if you want to do that seriously, you need funds to hire the people you need.  And you need a better IT infrastructure, too, so I’ll want to hire a chief technologist or IT person also.”

Bette picked up the driver again, and turned away from Lea to step closer to the tee. She resumed taking practice swings.  She hid her smile.

“All of that sounds like a lot of work Lea. Not to mention money.”

“Work you’re hiring me to do. You can step away from all the day-to-day stuff that has been killing you, and, instead, take the role that’s better for you.  A true CEO – you set the vision, and as your COO, I will execute it.  I know you like clean accounts; so do I.  Messy accounts are a sign of bad management … sorry, but it’s true.”

“As for the money – you’re right. At the start it will require money to set this infrastructure up.  But once I get the ball rolling, the way I described it to you, I aim to generate the funds needed to maintain operations through foundation operations and programs.”

This all sounds too good to be true.

Bette swung her driver up one last time to initiate the last time she would “grip it and rip it” today.   She felt free and easy.   There’ve been no gaping holes in her approach and mentality – she’ll be great in this role. Her mind and body connected one last time; she focused on the ball … and blasted it.