“Miserable week this week.”
That was the report.
I had helped build a new data center in Amsterdam. I had started school. I had also helped get my Monk Networks partner out of his full-time role so we could make a real run at the business.
Any one of those would have been enough for a week.
The data-center work was physical, detailed, and unforgiving. A diagram could look perfect while the rack, cable, switch, or machine in front of you had a completely different opinion. By the end, the system was up and the people were tired.
School was the opposite kind of load. It required quiet hours I did not have and attention that work kept interrupting.
Then there was Monk. We were trying to find a version of the company that could launch without a large investment. The basic idea was to get the first customers, use services to create revenue, and build the software as we learned what customers repeatedly needed.
That was sensible on paper. In practice, it meant two people doing a lot of work before there was much money or certainty attached to it.
We were choosing the bootstrap version because it gave us control. It also meant there was nobody else coming to absorb the risk, the late hours, or the unfinished work.
The week was miserable because the pieces mattered. I wanted the infrastructure to work. I wanted to finish school. I wanted the new company to be more than a logo and a plan.
Being excited about all three did not create a fourth copy of me.