This is the second post of 3 about me creating the character of Rand and writing his story. What should the next part be?

The Story so Far

So, let’s pretend that I’m writing the real story of my real life. What happened so far?

At age 54, Rand invented most of the ideas behind PeopleCount. After four years of failing to find partners, he finally tried to do it all alone. Or mostly alone (he paid for a year of coaching last fall, and there are a few people he can talk to, and one guy has said he’d be a marketing partner, but he’s mostly busy with other things at the moment. And four people donated $50!).

Three different teams offshore software teams promised to build the software and failed. So now he’s working hand-in-hand with a small 4th team. Unfortunately, he can’t afford a team that knows how to do it all already, so they’re still figuring some parts of it. Currently they’re a bit stymied by the security layer.

So Rand now finds himself with little money, an upset wife, bills to pay, the software’s stuck and he’s so, so tired. But the software’s really close to working. (For the last 5 weeks, it had seemed 2-3 weeks away. Now it seems like it’s 1-2 weeks away, maybe.)

New Pressure to Quit

The pressure to quit, from my wife, is getting more intense. Six months ago I was pretty sure we’d launch in March, so I forecasted that we’d certainly know by June. I picked June 7th, because I really really wanted PeopleCount to make a difference in the California primary, at least.

How do I want the next part of the story to go? Shall I ditch my wife and devote myself to PeopleCount? Shall I drop PeopleCount and devote myself to my wife as global warming continues to envelop the planet? Shall I go back to pretending “I’m just one guy- I can’t do this alone”?

I’ve tried telling my wife I made lots of commitments. Shall I keep the forecast I made for her- shall I honor it like, not just a promise, but the most important promise? Or shall I keep the commitment to billions of others that PeopleCount will launch and create a new possibility for humanity’s future?

What story shall I write next?

I know what story I want to write. That Rand and the developer (and his designer and tester) finish the software in time to launch on June 7th.  (But they postpone it two days to get past the election-news cycle.)

But that’s in five days!  I’m going for it, but it doesn’t look likely…

In a sense, I can only do what I can do. So the question becomes: Since I’m creating the character, who do I want him to be?