Project Phoenix

I’ve invested in several careers working on someone else’s ideas, principally by means of writing software code that helps someone else realize their dreams and ambitions, someone else’s ideas about good design, and someone else’s goals for making the world a better place. Some of these dreams and ambitions I shared. Others…well, they paid the bills.

Like the journalist who is perpetually working on a novel kept tucked away in the bottom drawer of his desk, I’ve had many original ideas stuffed into the bottom drawer of my mind. Things I’d eventually unleash upon the world to great fanfare and wide acclaim. That’s the story I kept telling myself. Eventually, enough time goes by and ideas like this are just…there, taking up space in a drawer in our mind. Inert. Acceptable fantasies to hold on to as a working adult because holding on to childhood fantasies like being an astronaut or MVP athlete are more embarrassing than practical.

But there is one idea that has been dancing in the back of my mind for a very long time. Unwilling to rest quietly until called for, it occasionally would come to the fore, but never with enough time to develop beyond an idea before the pressures of life sent it back again. For the past year I’ve had the good fortune to bring this idea forward and keep it there, dancing and playing together. The idea is solid and it’s a thing now. So much so I’ve spent money to develop the idea with the help of trusted partners and colleagues. The fledgling is out there, growing stronger under a protective wing. But it’s not ready for the world just yet.