John Linton
Yesterday turned out to be a non-day with the expected jet lag making it impossible to do anything but nod off every hour or so and thus making it impossible to do any sort of realistic work. Not unexpected and given that my aging body and mind doesn't deal with jet lag as easily as it once did the only sensible thing was to curl up on the couch and drowse away the day in a haze. It was still meant to be a 'holiday' day in any case. So equally unexpectedly when it came to time to go to bed it was difficult to sleep and then impossible to stay asleep as any jet lag sufferer knows so the new day starts with tiredness and apathy but hopefully that will be the end of it.
We have a board meeting later today continuing a pattern we established since our first month of operation of formally meeting and discussing and recording the key financial and operational aspects of our very small company. It was a bit ridiculous in our early days as we worked at the next desk from each other and continued to discuss the operation of the business at the end of each day so there was nothing new to discuss at a 'board meeting' but for various reasons we decided that we should formally document the problems we encountered and record how we dealt with them or intended to deal with them. Like many disciplines we instituted in our early days we have maintained this monthly meeting set against a fixed point agenda for getting on for six years now. Nothing very 'exciting' has been discussed at these meetings for several years now but that was not always the case with Exetel's three 'near death experiences' still quite fresh in my mind even though the last of those was over three years ago now.
However as I have not really paid attention to many aspects of the business while I have been on holidays (scarcely spoken to anyone over that time) and Steve has been attempting to find new IP solutions as well as finalise some future redesigns for the overall network there is more to catch up on than usual this month. One 'work' thing that did manage to intrude in to my yesterday's haze was a message on my mobile after I recharged the battery which had run out while I'd been away (I didn't take my mobile on holidays for all the obvious reasons) asking me to urgently contact the caller regarding an "irresistible" offer to buy Exetel. I deleted the message without replying to the person (I didn't recognise the name) and then went on to delete all of the other messages without responding to them - I figured there was little point in replying to messages left up to 4 weeks ago.
Sometimes, usually when I'm very tired, I give some thought to an 'exit strategy' for me personally from Exetel. I understand better than anyone else that I am not getting any younger and am unlikely to get any fitter or mentally acute as time passes and it is quite demanding running a small business in Australia. So it would make sense to consider selling the business to some entity that had enough money to pay cash and for the amount of cash to be acceptable to Annette and Steve (I really have no need for any more money than I already have for my expected life span) and have less demands in life generally and none of the stress of dealing with the never ending stream of problems being in business in the Australian communications industry inevitably continues to bring.
The other time I consider, however briefly, 'retiring' is on returning from a holiday where the joys and pleasures of doing absolutely nothing day after day for several weeks and indulging yourself in ways you would never dream of during your 'working week' remind you of what an alternative to working could be like. I guess I'm past the age when any sensible person should 'retire' and also past the 'wealth accumulation point' where continuing to work has any financial necessity or meaning - so I don't 'work' for those somewhat conventional reasons.
I won't be 'retiring' any time soon because I have been fortunate in my working life to actually get more pleasure and satisfaction from what I work at than I could envisage getting from any other activity. That's not to say that I wouldn't mind having a less demanding 'detail' work load as time goes by but I would not want to stop working until Exetel has fully achieved its objectives and there is nothing particularly new to work on. I realise that I'm very fortunate to have both the choice and the realisation that, given the choice of doing anything I want to, I am already doing that.
I wonder whether I will feel the same way at the end of today?