🏗️Building Castles 🏰with No Foundation🕳️: A Strategist’s Journey Inside a Global Startup

Hello Lovelies,

I walked into the opportunity with wide eyes and a ready spirit. A startup claim to have ambitions to shift systems and integrate equity. On paper, it was everything I’d been preparing for—fusing my background in chasing disasters, public-private partnerships, and sustainable development. My role? To build the engine while the car was already speeding down the highway. So I thought!🥴

And I jumped right in. I showed up with strategy decks, grant roadmaps, government engagement playbooks, brand positioning language, development targets, and cross-continental funding relationships. Within weeks, I produced more than most teams deliver in six months: grant applications submitted, strategic partnerships initiated, core messages clarified, and team members mobilized. The momentum was real.

But then came the reality.

Behind the ambition was something much more fragile: leaders who were enamored by titles, unready for discipline, and allergic to accountability. The vision was global, but the execution was reactive. The team had passion, yes, but no infrastructure. No strategy. No follow-through. In meetings, I’d present carefully curated solutions, only to watch them be ignored, sidetracked, or overtalked by ego and disorganization.

Every strategist knows the phases of transformation: diagnosis, alignment, planning, execution. I never got past phase two. The decision-makers weren’t ready. The organization was hungry for visibility but not structure. They’d rather launch hashtags than systems. They’d rather claim “international presence” than register a bank account. And when the stress hit, rather than lead, they’d disappear—or worse, deflect.

Let me be clear: I believe in bold missions. I live for big vision. But the truth is, if your internal leadership can’t hold a calendar, can’t respond to emails, can’t make basic decisions without spiraling into drama, then you’re not building equity—you’re reenacting dysfunction.

Still, I kept going. I thought maybe if I could create just the right document, the right pitch deck, the right partnership, I could “will” the maturity into place. But the truth is, you can’t coach commitment. You can’t train desire. And you cannot scale chaos.

So I made a decision. I gave my final recommendations, documented the gaps, archived the wins, and stepped back.

Not because I gave up—but because I’m in the business of building legacies, not illusions.

My takeaway? There are many people with beautiful missions who aren’t yet willing to be responsible stewards of them. The work of change isn’t just external—it requires internal leadership evolution. Without that, all the money in the world, all the branding, and all the partnerships mean nothing.

To those who want to build impactful organizations: Get serious. Respect your team’s time. Make decisions. Pay people. Show up. Or step aside and let the real builders build.

Because the world doesn’t need more nonprofit noise.

It needs sustainable, strategic, equity-driven change.

And I—we—came to deliver just that. Let's talk about how to build on a solid foundation. Book a call www.calendly.com/ladyerinlove

Leading with Light and Love,

Lady Erin Love