The story of the twelve spies in the Bible is known to billions. Leaders of children of Israel were commanded to check out the promised land, ahead of their jubilant entry. Instead, they bought back false reports and the march forward towards Jericho was delayed 40 years.

Commentaries on the text are rich and varied. One of my favourites comes form Rabbi Ari Kahn, who explains how the Jewish princes wee  asked to “see”, not spy, what was in front of them. Personal fears and intrigues led them to cover up the truth. In modern parlance, the mission became a fact-finding expedition, where vision and purpose were thrown out of the back of the tents.

I was reminded of this story when I was sitting yesterday with a client of mine in a Jerusalem restaurant. She has a very pertinent disruptive technology in the field of clean energy. I am not sure if there exists a description for a typical entrepreneur, but she would not fit the ticket. Nevertheless, she has grouped together a team, has created a working prototype, and is about to set off for an expenses-paid trip to a multinational manufacturer.

Our lady in question showed me a response she had recently received from the Israeli subsidiary of a conglomerate, which is known to help entrepreneurs. In fact they have a special programme to empower start ups run by females. Almost word for word, the letter questioned how the company could get this lady of their backs. She was a pest that needed to be got rid of.

Blunt? Rude? Absolutely. Shortsighted? To be seen. However, while hurt, my clientesse, has been able to look at the situation very wisely. The letter has enabled her to recognise the strengths of what she has achieved to date. She is very determined as to what are her end goals. In parallel, she has been prompted to identify with greater clarity where her weaknesses lie.

With hindsight, what happened was that when she first examined the letter, she had been handed a mission. Was she motivated enough to see her vision while others and events tried to distract her?

The answer? She has two requests to represent her company overseas in the next month or so, and the commercial insults are not going to stop her.