Fridays are supposed to be good days, right? Well this morning was a great day, but this afternoon not so much. I was talking with a customer about our project and telling them that we have to wait till next week because we are having problems still. Similar to others, I hate giving bad news. Its the part of my personality that hates the conflict of it, I’d much rather deliver on what I set out to do and do a 110% job. But not today.
For the past few months, I have been waiting to finish up our software platform. We have missed our deadline and significantly gone over budget. It has been a tough road as if I did it all, I would have been able to complete it (back in the day) in a much shorter time period. The worse part about it is that I outsourced the work after being convinced that this contractor was excellent in the field. The excellence hasn’t come out how I expected so far, and has just given me stress and anxiety…getting me to the point where I am now…a not so fun end to my Friday.
In a frustrated mood, my mom called and we talked about our weeks and what the plans for the weekend were. I was obviously not in a good mood, and she could sense it so as a mother she asked me what was going on. Reluctantly I told her the saga. With little understanding of what I am doing and how this whole startup thing works, she said that those problems are supposed to happen, that’s just a part of the journey. She proceeded to say that you are still in the “start” phase and haven’t made it to the “up” phase. When you start anything there are significant problems and challenges, even when you think you have figured out all the problems, more appear out of nowhere. This phase of starting is hard, its the reason that many “startups” don’t make it to the up part. I had never heard anyone break down the word before and really it clicked, it made sense to me. It doesn’t fully help me where I am because the software problems are still going on, but it does help change my mindset and help me justify where I am.
Going into the weekend, all I can do is focus on where I am and what I can control. I can control how I react to the problems of starting and what I can do to resolve these problems. Hopefully next week I can attack these problems and resolve them…and get 1 step closer to the “up.”