I am flying out of Cambodia at the moment on a SilkAir A320 not even having asked for it i ended up with the window seat on the exit row. The plan for today was not to go into work but just to relax a little get packed and get out of the country. In the process of getting a lift to the air port we went back to work for a few hours. which was good as i got to get a few last things worked out. Unfortunately Pakk actually works at another company full time, so that he can afford to run his business. Its quite a common practice in startups, I mean i always had another job the entire time we were running the company. This means that any ‘quality time’ that I get to spend with him i relish. The last few hours was spent working out how to determine a price point for the software that was going to lead to a good balance between covering costs and getting a sale.
In the last week you start to try and work out what you have actually achieved and what you haven’t. Unfortunately the objectives of my project this time round are very soft-skills focused. Unlike when I was in New Guinea there was a lot more tangible things do because I was actually putting in cable and servers and actual hard infrastructure. Don’t get me wrong I have really enjoyed my time here, and I think that I have given quite a lot momentum to the guys at work. Even though I know I shouldn’t, and my years of experience in development work tells me this I still want to have win. You know something tangible you can take away something that you’re actually did. However I remain and entrepreneur, its all academic until you make a sale, because that is what puts the bread on the table. And in the 11th hour it did, we actually sold some software.
You see this project was a little tougher than I thought it would be. The bag snatching, several run-ins with the police (traffic cops corruption stuff), the odd character following me home at night, a digestive system that just could not get use to the local food. Then of course Jack passing away in the second last week, really just kicked me in the guts. Deciding not to end the project early was a tough decision with in its self. But with out a solid win at the end I was having a really hard time justifying the idea of staying back. But it came through!!!! I mean it’s not a big sale, its actually only one module of the firms Micro finance suite. The thing that I am really chuffed about is the fact that they did it all themselves.