January 31, 2009
Back in 2004 I was earning £150,000 per year with a 25% stake in a successful internet company
However I was unsettled. Living in a world where unemployment and poverty was getting worse globally year after year, I decided to take a handbrake turn off the corporate highway, sold my assets and start a journey to see if I could get involved and help.
In 2005 I witnessed many things including 260 people shivering in doorways in winter in a rich London borough as well as married couples sleeping rough in Sainsbury’s car-park. I also met many ex-professionals eating and staying in rough sleeper hostels and soup kitchens.
What struck me is many of them didn’t have any addiction issues and seemed to spiral from incidents of redundancy and worklessness. And then there was ex small-business owners who crashed because clients didn’t pay them on time when they were financially able to.
So here they are – trapped in homeless shelters and looked down on by society – and yet a year ago they were in society, with homes, with jobs and living a life we all aspire to have. It dawned on me that this really is something that can happen to anyone.
And then it happened to me. Fast-forward a few years and during 2008 I ate in soup kitchens myself six times – with the staff recognising me as the person who just a few years earlier was researching unemployment and poverty with a passion to end it.
The reason was simple – a corporate client I was producing a project for in 2007 defaulted on £75,000 they owed – and in turn I owed to the supply chain I’d built for them to deliver a complex project. It was David versus the Goliath of a global procurement company. And that meant the development of Whitebox Digital also froze as the money I was making was being used to fund its development.
So that was it – immersed into extreme poverty by a business not paying what they owed even though they could pay. A similar story to what I’d heard by others in homeless shelters during my research but now I’d experienced it first hand and the social damage these decisions cause.
I tried to get a loan from the bank but this was recession year so all lending froze. The only way out was to trade – which I tried to do but with the recession it was near impossible to do so – and when the money kept running out I was back in soup kitchens for food. After 12 months I still hadn’t sorted the problem out and it looked like it could be the end of the road for me and the mission I was on.
And then a miracle happened. A philanthropist heard my testimony about how I’d left the corporate sector to tackle poverty and about the chain of events that unfolded and threatened to stop me in my tracks. Even though I wasn’t a charity he transferred £75,000 into my bank account the following Monday so I could continue the journey. And that I will.
I don’t regret the last 12 months – in fact I learned so much more both about who I am as a person and also that business done badly causes many of the social problems around us. But the good news is if that’s the case then imagine what an army of good businesses could do to change the world for the better. I look forward to when that day comes.
Onwards.
Addendum (added 26/12/2011): Friends and family asked me why during these 12 months of hardship and soup kitchens in 2008 when there didn’t look like a way out I didn’t just give up, close the company and go back to being employed on a high salary and to the rich lifestyle I left behind. The reason is now explained in this blog: ‘Today is the 7th anniversary of the Thailand Tsunami…“)
Awesome story.
Wow, David – very moving. Thanks for sharing. Stay in touch, let’s keep chatting. I had no idea this turn of events had transpired.
Very Inspiring Dave
Such an inspiration.. when will the book come out??
)…
I remember hearing you tell this story at SIE in the summer of 2010 (“always remember, poker face”). Tremendous. Great what you’re doing with WB. Best of luck to you.
Matthew