This is the sixth bimonthly 'What are you working On?' thread. Previous threads are here. So here's the question:
What are you working on?
Here are some guidelines:
- Focus on projects that you have recently made progress on, not projects that you're thinking about doing but haven't started.
- Why this project and not others? Mention reasons why you're doing the project and/or why others should contribute to your project (if applicable).
- Talk about your goals for the project.
- Any kind of project is fair game: personal improvement, research project, art project, whatever.
- Link to your work if it's linkable.
I'm chasing money, power, and romance. I'm getting a little bit of the first two. The third one, not so much. Previous post here.
In the two months since I started my side business, I've been putting all the money I can spare into it, plus all debt I can comfortably take on. Right now I'm into it for about 30% of my annual take-home. We've processed a couple hundred orders and the business has made an 18% return on that money. Excited to keep growing it.
I went through a renegotiation with my boss. He offered me a 16% raise, I turned it down, a couple of days later we got back together and agreed to 20% plus a bonus equal to 5% of my old salary. Got a new title with the word "Lead" in it. The customer we pitched two months ago signed on. My project, my baby, and enough money to pay the salary of everyone at the company for two years. The boss was thrilled. We have a multi-year contract to go from prototype to finished product. Now I just have to build the damn thing.
I'm bumping up against a lot of difficulty as I try to date successfully. It feels like I've caught all the low-hanging fruit, and I go out and put forth my best effort, and it still isn't good enough. Then I watch my friends succeed with such little apparent effort, and I wonder, "what am I doing wrong?!" It's tough, emotionally, to deal with the rejection, but I've developed some mental exercises to stay positive and keep me from despairing. I do have a date tonight, probably my first "date," with an equally nervous girl who I think might actually like me. We'll see how it goes!