So now what?

from JoeUser Forums

I am having a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, I’ve been promising my family to work fewer hours and managed to do that to a large extent over the last couple.  On the other hand, last year was such a good year and this year looks even better that it presents so many exciting and varied opportunities….if only there were more hours.

The accountants haven’t turned over the final numbers but broadly speaking, it appears our sales overall increased by about 3X over 2011, which, in itself, was a pretty good year.  This means lots of capital to invest in new ventures.

The temptation is to go back to the old habit of just working crazy hours.  But that’s not what we’re going to do. Instead, we’ve recruited some new people and promoted some internal people to take charge of some of these new opportunities.

43,034 views 21 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Instead, we’ve recruited some new people and promoted some internal people to take charge of some of these new opportunities.

Good choice.  Life is indeed short. :thumbsup:

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

1. Keep your promises: Family comes first.

2. Delegate: Give a general direction and turn the folks loose... with an incentive program.

3. Compromise... by supervising... and not micro managing.

 

Which seems to be just what you're doing.  :thumbsup:

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top

You should still work, though, just not crazily.  I think you've figured out that you have hit the spot in your life where you need to live awesomely instead of working in order to be able to live later - it's later now.  You put in the time.  It's time to put in the life, and hope you haven't hurt anyone too badly while you were putting in the time.  It's one way to live, and it can lead to great monetary wealth, and it looks like your family doesn't think badly of you for doing it, so you'll be fine.

Others wait until it's too late and they don't even know their wife and children anymore. 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Yea, I'm still working full time +.  But there's a big difference between 80 hours (normal) week and a 50 hour normal week. ;)

Last year I got down to 40 hours as a normal week.

 

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Keep your promises to your family (and pets) and cherish the time you do have to spend with them. Just try to stay out of the pond, at least when it's frozen. ;)

P.S. If you could find it in your heart to throw some money and manpower at WinCustomize,............... :inlove:

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Wizard1956, reply 5
throw some money and manpower at WinCustomize,

we’ve recruited some new people and promoted some internal people to take charge of some of these new opportunities.

:)

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Gimme a job!  No, I can't program or really have any skills useful in any part of the tech industry, but I am willing to get a paycheck from you.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Family comes first. Keep it 40, when projects are finishing up then up a bit. Humans start to make crap ton of mistakes after a certain point and when your feeling tired call it. Quality of life.  :)

Seems you got the money so hire some new blood.  :thumbsup:  The Drengin taskmasters new people to break in.  O:)

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

Defintely spend more time with your family.

That being said, what are you doing for those 40-80 hours?

As the CEO, you should spend the vast majority of your time engaging in strategic planning, not the day to day operations. If you are still activity "rolling up your sleeves", you haven't delegated sufficiently.

- I'm saying this assuming that SD has reach a "critical mass" where the day to day operations can run by themselves without your periodic attention.

Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Wizard1956, reply 5
P.S. If you could find it in your heart to throw some money and manpower at WinCustomize,...............

Now there's a plan....;)

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Borg999, reply 10
Defintely spend more time with your family.

That being said, what are you doing for those 40-80 hours?

As the CEO, you should spend the vast majority of your time engaging in strategic planning, not the day to day operations. If you are still activity "rolling up your sleeves", you haven't delegated sufficiently.

- I'm saying this assuming that SD has reach a "critical mass" where the day to day operations can run by themselves without your periodic attention.

 

The thing is I think Brad is a developer at heart. Specifically he loves AI development. I think it's important for people to do what they love. That's more important than money. I have many developer friends who started their own business and now have a great deal of money, nice houses and that kind of stuff but they don't spend any of their time programming and their voices are always sad when they talk about it. If you're going to delegate I say delegate as much management as you can and reserve a fair chunk of your time for doing what you really love. You are the boss after all and that's what i would do.

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

Travel, I say! I love doing it with my family, and it's the one thing I wish I could do more. If you take friday off, leave thursday evening, and fly home sunday night you can get 3 full days out of a weekend.

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

cloning.

 

and i don't mean the mental version.. that would be going mental.

Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 10



Quoting Wizard1956,
reply 5
P.S. If you could find it in your heart to throw some money and manpower at WinCustomize,...............


Now there's a plan....

"nuff said.

Reply #15 from Elemental Forums Top

It can be a bit counter-intuitive to take a step back and let others do the things you usually do, but the effects of overworking can have consequences that negate the benefits of applying your expertise in multiple areas.

When you put out test builds I see that as smart working.  Not everyone is going to try it, but as long as a certain number of players do and report back useful data, you've just shortened the time it takes to figure out if that new code works as you intended.

When I come across bug reports now, I note what might be causing them but I leave the lion's share of them for other devs to fix because the more I do, the more I'm tempted to jump back on the overwork wagon.  There's nothing worse than trying to fix a half-dozen things and making things worse because you're rushing to get onto the next thing.

Reply #16 from Elemental Forums Top

Frog, get your ass moving and make me a new game!  

Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Lord, reply 16
Frog, get your ass moving and make me a new game!  

You're married now, you don't have time for that.;) Just ask your wife.   :-"

Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Give me the DesktopX source. I'll learn whatever programming language I have to and fix it for you. ;-)

Reply #19 from Elemental Forums Top


I am having a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, I’ve been promising my family to work fewer hours and managed to do that to a large extent over the last couple.  On the other hand, last year was such a good year and this year looks even better that it presents so many exciting and varied opportunities….if only there were more hours.

 

Spend the time with your family.  You can never, never regain that, if you ignore it.

Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 10

Quoting Wizard1956, reply 5P.S. If you could find it in your heart to throw some money and manpower at WinCustomize,...............

Now there's a plan....

 

I second this sentiment. ;)

Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top

when i reached that point in my life, i thought: do i want to be rich or do i want to live my life. I decided the latter, sold my business, took out a pension with the proceeds which gave me moderate means for the rest of my life. Been happy ever since, best decision i ever made.