Retirement - Are We There Yet?

 "Are we there yet!?" as I recall was often heard from the back of my car when transporting my children.  They used to do it as a joke which was good although occasionally tiresome we all thought it was very amusing.

I often ask myself the same question as I should be retired but I am involved in this business / project that should have finished some years ago and should be being tested on the great public at large.  The fact that it is six years late is a matter for debate but with being abandoned to finish it alone now, it adds extra pressure on me to either make a go of it or close it down.  The easiest would be to close it down but the Gauntlet picked up has for all my life been where I am at.  

I can almost touch the final product - almost and even after all this time, still not fully.  Half of the project delivered may just give me the opportunity to actually make some money from my close to 8 or 9 years investment.

My own stupid fault for getting involved I suppose.  I'm waiting for the inevitable, "you stole this business from him" and other such trite, non-knowledgeable guff that you often get when friends hear one side of the story but do not take the time to investigate the other.  I like that some will say that I caused a rift, forced out the guy and so on.  Nothing could be further from the truth of the matter.  In fact, it was because I spoke about the way the business functions and the need for professionalism to come to the fore that suddenly and without any explanation, I got a disgusting letter and that was it a complete burning of bridges, no way back and here I am left with a problem.

Oh well, at least I shall endeavour to make a go of it and see where we get to.  If it doesn't work, it doesn't work and I can shut it all down without too much to worry about.  Like a lot of people though, I imagine he's ruminating on what he's done and is possibly too proud to mend things.  I'll provide opportunities in the New Year that he can take if he wants to.  After the disappointment and all the work I've put in to make his dreams reality, I felt I probably deserved better.  No matter, I kind of hope that it does well and then I can enjoy my own satisfaction of a job well done and who knows, there might even be some reward for it.  There's been bugger all in the last 8 or 9 years!

So I'm not there yet.  Much as I'd like to be, I'm not retired and I'm somewhere I had no idea I'd be in and in many ways, I was expecting to have built this, handed it over to a business person to run and be sat back getting occasional rewards.  Now I have to run it myself but hey ho, that's where we are.  At least I have done all of the work I need to do to get it up and running.

I feel sorry for the other chap though, he's thrown his toys out of his pram and I think it is dawning on him that he's walked away from everything.  He attempted to chat to our sub-contractor who rightly explained that he doesn't actually work for him he worked for the business to whom he is contracted.  I think that must have rocked him and I understand he got angry about the situation but if you walk away and resign, you have no further input.  It is now my call and I've made commercial decisions (to stay in business mainly) that he would not like.  It's kind of tough but it was either do that or shut it down.

Onward and Upwards - who knows maybe I'll get this bit finished soon and can actually start to run the business and finally get something out of it!