Paradise Lost
Travel back to 1999. Clinton was in the White House. Every idiot was launching a dotcom worth millions in moments. I was working on the Internet.
Here's the dynamic: I had a mix of self-employment work from local clients and ongoing work from an IT temp agency. Money was good. My wife would take off to work at noon and I would pick her up at approx. 9PM. She had her late mornings. I got to see her. We lived in a house and had enough money.
Things were so good we screwed with the dynamic. Cheryl had to work later. I did less work for the temp agency and more with local clients who choked on $5 invoices. We moved from renting a house to buying a townhouse. We started a family.
During the same time, the dotcom crash happened. Then two years later, 9/11 slammed US job opportunities. With a new family came a lot of time taking care of our child. Meanwhile, I made big mistakes:
I worked for two chuckleheads who cared only about their BMWs (his and "hers") and their sex tours to Asia.
I started writing a book. Problem is: the publishing industry is in a route. The IT industry moreso. The ditz editor pushed by 90,000 word book to 200,000 words. Then, she wanted it pared back after I got the manuscript handed in. Her high career high-water mark: editing one of the many "Internet Directories"-- kind of an Internet phonebook. She also dangled me for 5 months while I was waiting for part one of my advance to come through. Part two never came.
After that, I was part of an IT co-op, EPICO. That was a mistake. Nine people who didn't want to cooperate. A two year battle of diminishing returns. When we walked in, Cheryl was $10K in debt. I had $2K in debt. When we got out of it, we shared $24K in debt. Before EPICO, my income was hovering around $30-36K depending on the year. After EPICO, $6K/year. Thank you EPICO: you almost killed me.
So, I found a job and it was almost ideal. I could everything they needed me to do. The company had been around 10 years. They had more than one programmer. It was good. Then, the workload ramped up. My wife was working 3-11, I had to work 7-3 to satisfy the demands of the job. So, basically I became a single parent with a roommate, low rent and a good separation agreement. I averaged 4 hours of sleep every night. Sometimes less. I started getting chest pains and a permanent sense of despondency. Life was a different version of Hell. Now I had the money to pay my bills, but my quality of life was just as bad. Then things started to get busier.
Paradise Lost.
Here's the dynamic: I had a mix of self-employment work from local clients and ongoing work from an IT temp agency. Money was good. My wife would take off to work at noon and I would pick her up at approx. 9PM. She had her late mornings. I got to see her. We lived in a house and had enough money.
Things were so good we screwed with the dynamic. Cheryl had to work later. I did less work for the temp agency and more with local clients who choked on $5 invoices. We moved from renting a house to buying a townhouse. We started a family.
During the same time, the dotcom crash happened. Then two years later, 9/11 slammed US job opportunities. With a new family came a lot of time taking care of our child. Meanwhile, I made big mistakes:
I worked for two chuckleheads who cared only about their BMWs (his and "hers") and their sex tours to Asia.
I started writing a book. Problem is: the publishing industry is in a route. The IT industry moreso. The ditz editor pushed by 90,000 word book to 200,000 words. Then, she wanted it pared back after I got the manuscript handed in. Her high career high-water mark: editing one of the many "Internet Directories"-- kind of an Internet phonebook. She also dangled me for 5 months while I was waiting for part one of my advance to come through. Part two never came.
After that, I was part of an IT co-op, EPICO. That was a mistake. Nine people who didn't want to cooperate. A two year battle of diminishing returns. When we walked in, Cheryl was $10K in debt. I had $2K in debt. When we got out of it, we shared $24K in debt. Before EPICO, my income was hovering around $30-36K depending on the year. After EPICO, $6K/year. Thank you EPICO: you almost killed me.
So, I found a job and it was almost ideal. I could everything they needed me to do. The company had been around 10 years. They had more than one programmer. It was good. Then, the workload ramped up. My wife was working 3-11, I had to work 7-3 to satisfy the demands of the job. So, basically I became a single parent with a roommate, low rent and a good separation agreement. I averaged 4 hours of sleep every night. Sometimes less. I started getting chest pains and a permanent sense of despondency. Life was a different version of Hell. Now I had the money to pay my bills, but my quality of life was just as bad. Then things started to get busier.
Paradise Lost.
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