So work life doesn't seem to be getting better - more an more demands, impossible deadlines, volatile database / business process definition environment to work in. You build something to the best of your ability within the time constrainsts and it may break for reasons beyond your control. Chaos.
Well, at least the stock keeps going up. It may get better. Maybe a key acquisition or some influx of skilled workers would relieve this pressure. Whatever. You still have to have a PLAN B. In my case, my PLAN B is my ideal go forward plan.... to have a company of my own that reflects my voice and how I believe we can solve this country's upcoming delimna of a tsunami of technical competitors. If the stock price remains stable or moves up, I will have $50k on paper to take a leap and back up this smack talk I am penning in this blog.
I continue to have conversations among Chinese, Indian, and Filipino friends who point out that though they have an army of coders, a lot of rework is needed to get the customer what they want. There are still, but not for long, advantages to being an American. In this country, I truly believe someone with a strong character and at least a public school education has the resources to get in that garage and invent something marketable throughout the world. There are resources we Americans have to knowledge and distribution. We have a storied history of invention. The problem is that the majority do not take advantage of these resources. The majority of Americans are not resourceful or inventive or are complacent with the status quo. These 3rd world countries don't have the resources we do, yet. A majority of workers are still living under a slave mentality. Even if they wanted to, the could not excel past certain levels unless they were extremely resourceful and imaginative. Even then, there is a crab mentality culture where people attack those more successful than they are. There are proven models of success in these countries that could change this established culture overnight. As Americans, we are in danger of losing an edge over these hoards. They may soon also believe that they can do anything they put their minds to and have a government that provides resources to re-enforce these beliefs.
A company of mine born on my next vesting period would have to be well defined. It would have to have a clear plan to feed my family before I ran out of money. I need to struggle through the business plan and its presentation. A few ideas I want to theme my company after include.... lessons I learned from sales. In my software sales experience, I found that you really needed to have a compelling story around a solid product. Even then, you would have to go through a wave a sales calls. Maybe 2 in 10 sales calls would result in a follow up. Maybe of the follow ups, 1 resulted in a sale. The only way to increase sales would be to have more attempts at sales calls. It was very hard to change the success rate in a competitive market. Therefore, you went out there and you knocked on doors. To make sales, you knocked on a lot more doors. Sometimes, you knocked on doors of people you knew and those sales came a little easier. Right now, what I can sell is consulting services. I need a compelling story and presentation. I need to make calls to any open.
On the side, I must improve my skills through side projects that I package up and become part of my story. I might try to start a club of people who would be interested in following my same path - consult with my core skill set - business intelligence, write about my experiences and maybe come up with a saleable book, build open source, eventually sell open source or services using your open source as an engine, or services teaching others how to cobble open source together into custom products. A business of mine would have to take everything I do and leverage it into something I can make money on or solidify my story/fame as a A-list technologist. Essentially, I need to take that 50K and launch a PR campaign for myself while filling in the holes that lift me up from a $100K+/year technologist to a $200K+/year and above technologist. Part of this plan involves taking on 2 or 3 interns (my nephew included) who I can turn in 3 or 4 years to $60-$70k per year technologists.
Anyway, time for work. I've got 3 months to come up with a well defined exit strategy. In my mind, I need to:
- Write a business plan
- Polish the 2 side products I am working on: Lock And KeY ID.com and Nostalgia.
- How we will live on $50K while this plan is executing.
Alternatively, I could invest in real estate. I feel I'd rather dedicate the money to finding my voice and building myself into a top technologist. There's time for real estate investment later when the market is not as hot as it is now.
