At the dawn of what was to become a long long journey not only through drawing pictures and writing words but that unavoidable bit you have to contend with if you don’t want to take orders from someone else – Business – I was moaning at a friend about some stitch up I’d found myself the victim of : I was very green at the time.

The friend had only been in business himself for two or three years but was a good 30 years older than me and so I listened when he gave me a particularly sage piece of unforgettable advice: “There are enough nice people out there; you don’t have to deal with the bastards.” It has become a bit of a mantra over the years – and a burden.

If, like everyone here, you go through life liking people in general, taking folk, and what they say at face value you find most people are “nice” so when they let you down, stitch you up or just don’t come up to your expectations you tend to feel more hurt than if you had expected the worse of everyone in the first place.

Recently we extricated ourselves from one such situation, with no real damage just a healthy dose of disappointment at what some are prepared to do to get their own way – a way that was obviously wrong and possibly bordering on the illegal – but which we could do nothing about without exposing the full extent of the not good stuff that was going on – which in turn would have hurt too many people who didn’t deserve to be caught in the fall out.

I’m sure if the boot had been on the other foot there would have been no hesitation regardless of the collateral damage – which is why we are no longer involved.

This morning with a final look over the shoulder we looked forward again and realised that everyone else we deal with, suppliers, clients and associates are all ordinary (often extraordinary) eclectic, interesting and very nice people.

So we can relax, pat ourselves on the back and bear witness to the truth of the mantra:

You don’t have to deal with the bastards.