Decisions at Dawn

He loved the idea of building something that would help people with their personal finance, but he knew there were many others who could do a better job. Alex was very hesitant to start another venture. He considered himself soft, a pushover—the kind of employer whom people found friendly yet easy to push around. He liked to manage by getting everyone’s buy-in, believing that every person on the team mattered. He often worked very late into the night, though still not bragging about his 80-hour workweeks. People didn't see the point of working so hard. His parents were pragmatic, believing it's best to take care of one’s own family and not worry too much about others—a mentality of self-isolation. Last year, all he did was to retreat into his cave of long term loneliness.

If I’m a bear, I would be very good at hibernating.

Arriving early at the office, Alex messaged Blue. Can you talk?”

“In 5 minutes,” came the reply.

Alex and Blue started their call. Blue began discussing the election and the death of democracy in the US. “We both come from the empire,” he said. Blue often referred to their origins as the ‘empire’.?

Alex knew better than to interrupt Blue during his rants, waiting out the vent until it exhausted itself of all its poison, sometimes taking 20 minutes, or even more.

“We have to make money this year,” Blue stated. Although technically employed and earning money, he was disgruntled with how hard he had to work and how little the pay rate was.

Alex replied in a sarcastic tone “We’re not making money because it's not our priority. We like to make money, yes, but it has to be by doing something that we like and that we are actually good at. Making money is on our list, sure, but I hear you. We have to make money this year. I'm with you, but I cannot tackle everything.”

“I know. I’m just working on my website. I’m almost done. I’m going to embed an AI chat directly into it. It will be awesome.”

“When will you finish it?”

“Just a few more days,” Blue replied.

“You’ve been saying that every month for the past six months.”

“I know, right? I just want to add a few more extra features.”

Alex commented, “Technology is moving so fast. We can't even spend much time on cutting-edge AI technology before it changes again.

“So, what do we do?”

“I’m not going to do everything. I… I’ve decided to go back to investing,” Alex replied cautiously, noticing Blue's slight disappointment. He continued with his 'We all have a gift' speech,’ so familiar to Blue that he could have recited it all day, using his head as a script, but he refrained out of politeness. After about 10 minutes, Alex concluded, “I don't want to do anything outside of investing this year. I need to be focused.”

“I hear you. Can we do this together? It has to make money too,” Blue said, the repetition of this statement making it more real to him. “I’m working hard just to pay the bills. I’m like a slave. I don’t have anything at the end of the day.”

Alex suggested, “What if we take that music project we worked on a few years back and add something in there about investing. That way, I could continue with our long abandoned project. We could work together on that.”

“Sure. We have to make money anyway. Let’s keep it simple. Don’t make it so complicated. We tend to overcomplicate things a lot.”

“Let me make some plans for the start of the year. Afterward, we need to regroup and figure out the investment part of that app,” Alex said, knowing he was overcommitting again.

“Don’t take forever, we have to move. Let’s get this project going," said Blue.

“Give me a few days to think it through,” Alex replied.

Alex knew the music app was a great project even if it didn't make money right away.

The pause to think for a few days was necessary…

I have to be honest; I enjoy working with Blue, but I need a reason why. Any reason would do, I guess. Still, I don't think the music app is right. I have an idea…