Indefatigable

Posted by indomitablehef | Filed under LeanKit, Kanban, Personal

I have this little tagline at the top of my blog: “Inimitable. Indefatigable. Indomitable.” Now, those are mostly there because I’m a lover of words, and I just like those words. But I also see them as something to aspire to. I think I can lay some claim to being “Inimitable”, and at times even “Indomitable”. But until recently, I don’t think I ever understood how hard “Indefatigable” can be. (Indefatigable = tireless). You see, I’ve started my own business, with a couple of partners. I still have my regular job, too. My wife says that I’m now working three full time jobs (she counts being a Dad and Husband as one of those jobs, which is nice).

My third job (the new business) starts every night at about 10 or 11PM, after my daughter is asleep, and my wife and I have had time to sit together and drink a glass of wine and watch a little TV. At midnight, we have our daily standup call with my partners here in Tennessee and our European contractors, who are waking up early (at 7 or 8AM) to join the call. This time pretty much guarantees that everyone is equally sleepy.

From there, I work until 2 or 3AM, or even later, and finally collapse into bed when I start falling asleep at the keyboard. Our daughter likes to wake up at 5 or 6 in the morning, so my wife and I take turns being the one to wake up first, and whoever gets that first duty usually gets a few more minutes of sleep right before having to get up and start the day. My wonderful wife is very supportive and works out ways to give me blocks of time on weekends where I can work as well.

It’s been a lot of hard work for the past few months, but we’re finally getting very close to a full product launch. We’ve been in beta for awhile, and we may still call it “beta” for a little while after we launch, but it will be out there and available for use and purchase by early November. I should mention, too, that my partners, Stephen Franklin and Daniel Norton, have also been burning the candle at both ends - and I send out a special “thanks” to Leslie and Mary (their wives) for also being so supportive during this time. And we couldn’t have done it without the help of our intrepid young team of contractors - those guys are rock stars, and I feel lucky to know them.

I don’t expect I’ll be back to regular blogging anytime soon. There’s still much work to be done, and my personal blog is definitely going to take a back seat for awhile. But someday, when “we own the company we want to work for”, I’ll be back to writing on my own a bit.

Oh, yes…the new company! We’re called Bandit Software, LLC. (named after Stephen’s dog, Bandit). Our first product is LeanKit Kanban, and you can sign up for the beta, and get a free account, at http://LeanKitKanban.com