Victus Spiritus

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2 customers, 2 jobs, 2 lives

29 Jun 2011

Your company has clients with conflicting needs, and you can serve one, the other, or neither:

  1. One customer is a small company which is incredibly satisfied with your current product. Their future is uncertain, but you feel their needs are well matched to your product's roadmap. They're low to zero maintenance.
  2. The other customer is Huge. They are the dominant source of your company's revenue. They make heavy customization demands which are a distraction to your team's product plans. Without them your business will need incremental funding within a few months or faces drastic downsizing or shutting down.

Which do you see as the right path for your business? The answer appears clear to me, but it's never so cut and dry for a cash starved startup. Choose your customers wisely.

You have two immediate job opportunities:

  1. One you've been doing for years and pays handsomely, but future prospects and satisfaction look grim
  2. the Other is a spectacular risk which will pay a fraction of the salary while requiring a much greater demand on your time, yet opens the door to a new world of opportunity

Which do you feel instinctively drawn to and why? I know my answer.

Your future splits off in a finite but huge number of potential branches. Each branch sprouts forth from a node you call home. Where do you choose to live?

  1. There is a place thousands of miles from where you live now that has unmatched opportunity, but is far from family and has a very steep cost of living
  2. The alternative is the home you've been living in and made into a calm and comfortable environment, is close to family, and is relatively cheap.

Where you choose to live will impact your life partner, your families, and professions. Home is where we rest, rejuvenate, and do our most delicate planning, but it's location affects nearly every other aspect of our lives.

Decision making is almost never cut and dry. The big decisions we make in life are far more nuanced than the simple examples listed above. Successful decisions are the ones we make consciously and openly with those who are impacted.