One of the most difficult things about being a consultant is the never ending search for the next job. Even now, when I’m up to my eye-balls in work, I’m always on the look out for the next interesting contract.
So now I’m here in Toronto, serving one client, and searching for the next.
The work that brings me to the city is fascinating. I’m serving a small child and youth advocacy organization called Voices for Children. We’re working together to develop a comprehensive communication’s strategy that will accurately translate their mission – to turn knowledge into action for the well being of Ontario’s young citizens – into a set of tangible, measurable, and most importantly, effective communications goals, objectives, key messages and delivery strategies. I like the organization a lot, and I like the fact that my work is helping to make the lives of children – of which I have two – better.
And while I’m in the city I’m schlepping my wares, not unlike a dude in a baggy coat that, as you pass his haunt at the mouth of a shadowy ally holds it open and asks “wanna buy a strategic plan?”
Maybe it’s the weather – grey (when is it not in Toronto?) and a little brisk (I’ve become such a cream-puff since moving to Victoria) - but I’m not quite as aggressive about my hustling as I have been in the past. I’m down to just three or four meetings a day, instead of six or seven. I’ve accepted that I just won’t be able to see everybody that I want. I can even accept that in some cases, I really don’t have to foist myself and ideas on others – it’s ok to just relax a little. Lao Tzu says:
Know when you have enough to accomplish your goals
and you will succeed
Know when to stop
and you will always move forward
Seek nothing
and you will find everything you need
(Tao, 44)
So maybe it’s ok to hang out in Tinto, on Roncesvalles, and write a blog and do some work on another client’s Strategic Plan.
While writing Carry Tiger to Mountain, this was one of the most difficult things for me to accept. I wrote a whole chapter on this idea, focusing on fundraising, organizational development, scarcity and abundance. I’ve not yet come to grips with an abundance mentality, but I’m trying. I’ve got a lot to let go of before I can say I’m seeking nothing, and finding everything.
About Me
- Stephen Legault
- Stephen Legault is a writer, activist, organizational development consultant and fundraiser who lives in Victoria, BC and Canmore, Alberta. Stephen started writing in 1988. Kicked out of his high school biology class, he bought a notebook and sat down in the woods near his Burlington Ontario home and wrote some really awful, angst ridden poetry. Since then, Stephen has written for the Globe and Mail, Canadian Geographic, Outdoor Canada, Canadian Wildlife, and dozens of other periodicals and newspapers. His first book, Carry Tiger to Mountain: The Tao of Activism and Leadership was published in April of 2006 by Arsenal Pulp Press. The Cardinal Divide is the first in a series of environmental murder mysteries featuring Cole Blackwater. It will be published by NeWest Press in November of 2008. The series will combine gritty, action-oriented stories and rich human drama with real environmental and social justice conflicts. Stephen is a runner, photographer, and father of two beautiful boyz: Rio Bergen and Silas Morgen. He and his partner Jenn travel and explore the natural world of the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountains.