Go Big or Go Home!

Vi and I built our house together. I was working full-time as a web programmer during the project. I was the general contractor, project manager, electrician, R-2000 certified home builder and labourer. I did the heavy lifting and Vi was my support.

“Dream big and scale back”, I used to say.

What this means is that at the planning stage, you throw in all the ideas, no matter how grandiose, and then at the budgeting phase you start cutting out many of them. This approach worked out for us because five years later only very minor details would be changed with the overall plan if we were to do it all over again.

At one point, I felt like we were building a nest. It was an apt metaphor but at the time it was like we were building an empty nest. Time went on and we were well settled in. After a couple of programming positions later I had taken on the entrepreneurial role again. This time I had an idea. And, I had a home office!

I should have known, though, that sometimes plans don’t always go so smoothly but grit is the key. Now the nest is no longer empty and I’ve been kicked out of my home office. I try to use some metaphor to get a grip on the situation when diapers need to be changed or the little one starts crying and screaming but all metaphors break down – all except disaster management.

There is still a lot of work for me to launch my product. It is at an advanced stage and to use the house building terms, it’s in lock-down, it is roughed-in and there is the finishing to do. And do I ever have big dreams for this.

“Go big or go home” is another saying I recall often. Well, I’m already home. My only other choice now is big!