A client of mine was thinking about starting a business, and asked me how big an overdraft she needed to ask her bank for. After talking through her plans, we agreed that the overdraft was a safety net, not a requirement and that, ideally, she ought not to make arrangements to borrow money she didn’t need.

I have been very lucky to work with a number of entrepreneurs and business owners. If I had to identify a common characteristic, it is a simple determination to succeed. Not necessarily financially, but in getting their product, service, or message, out there. It never seems to matter how much they have in the bank, their passion to succeed leads them to find innovative and often unusual ways to achieve their goals.

Passion really is a form of currency. To illustrate this, I can remember presenting to a bank for a significant loan to support a business. On paper, the business was in trouble. It was losing money, it was losing good staff, and it had issues with its governance. What it did have was a charismatic leader who conveyed a tangible sense of passion to succeed. Failure simply wasn’t an option. The bank was convinced, and the loan was granted.

If passion is a form of currency, then starting with little cash is no bar to success. The ideal combination is a sound business plan, presented with passion.

It is so hard to keep in touch with everyone. Family, friends, associates, business contacts, the list goes on and on.

I count myself lucky to know as many wonderful people as I do (and I am sure you know who you are!). But when I look back at my life I, realise how many wonderful people I have known, but who, for one reason or another, I have lost touch with.

Here’s a thought, perhaps not everyone we meet is supposed to be in your life for always.

Not all relationships can last forever. Relationships change over time. There will be times when a temporary relationship is necessary (such as bringing in a consultant or expert), times when a cry for help is best made to a stranger.

How long is the person we talk to next destined to be in our lives?

In business, as well as in my personal life, I can look back and see how my needs and wants have changed. And as I have grown and developed, I can see how I have drifted into (and out of) other people’s lives.

Rather than get depressed about how many good people I no longer speak to on a regular basis, I try to celebrate the wisdom I have gained from knowing them.

The climate is what we expect; weather is what we get.

I can’t remember where I heard this, but as regular readers will know, good phrases tend to stick in my head until they pop out here on my blog.

There are many people who will tell you what is going to happen, some will quite happily charge you for the advice. I have no idea where many get their insight from and, as with all predictions, they are often wrong, or were so woolly in the first instance that they try to argue that black is white.

I forget, are we heading for a new ice age, or global warming?

I am not discounting the value of forecasts, but their usefulness lies in the accuracy of the assumptions they are based on. There is not much difference between an uncertain stream of income, and a high pressure zone wandering aimlessly across the Atlantic Ocean towards Europe.

To you give yourself the best possible chance of coming out ahead of the rest, regularly test the assumptions you base your forecast on.

It’s never the weather that is wrong; it’s what you are wearing.