The reason why I love AQ. (A start-up magazine nightmare)

A few more sprints and I'm there. The magazine is almost finished but I can't breathe freely until it is in front of me. Call me an over-reacting prick, but really, these past few days, that magazine has been haunting me even in my sleep. Tsk... talk about paranoia. I think I'm being paranoid that we wouldn't be able to release it. If that happens, I'm gonna kill someone. No, I'm going to murder a bunch of asswipes who made my life miserable while at it.

Geez, it's been months, nearing a year since the concept came up. Didn't think that a start-up is this friggin' hard. That time when my boss told me I'm going to be the project lead for this magazine, hypocrisy aside, I wasn't exactly elated; i was afraid of the responsibility. But hey, who would think that I'll be getting there? 'Yun nga lang, madaming side trips. Like this one time when I was scorned alive by the hurtful words of my boss that I am not doing anything to make this magazine happen. In a way, it became my wake up call and decided to make him eat his words. I became more eager and passionate (err... too strong a word) about this project.

Maybe the problem was really me in the beginning. I did not trust myself enough that I can handle a project as big as this. And I got no motivation at all. All I had were plans in black and white but none of them really did exist. On top of these, people around me are more skeptical than positive that this can really happen. What a bunch of pessimists; how can you expect me to feel differently? Anyway, I'm glad I overcome.

With this kind of job, I have to do away with my indecisive attitude and forget about myself. I have to be 'thick' when necessary. I have to be resourceful and quick-witted. Otherwise, I'd be stagnant. And so I wrote thousands (okay, exaggeration) or hundreds of emails to various people whom I felt are potential subject matter expert writers for the magazine. Most of them ignored my mail while a few wrote back and promised to contribute. But hey, promises are often made to be broken... so really, I didn't hope. I needed a plan B so I relied on referrals. I emailed and made a bunch of phone calls to strangers until I got answers... or more aptly, until I got the articles. I contacted prominent names in the industry and asked for appointments for interview hoping I'd be able to feature them in the magazine. In my mind, we are all people -- they fart and belch like me so I shouldn't feel intimidated. And thank the good heavens, i got replies. (Watch out for IBM and HP in the magazine's first issue). Slowly, I put pieces together until I'm left with only a few to fill up.

Right now, we're still experiencing hell -- the confusion caused by some unwanted entities that (who) does nothing but inflate their egos at your expense. I thank God he gave me my editorial consultant who is too kind, she's always there to lift my hopes up, Em, the newbie layout artist who always puts up with all kinds of sh** and my circle of friends in the office who boost my morale when I am nearing sanity lapse.

The psyching out continues and the skeptics are still out there. But one thing's for sure, they wouldn't get my spirits down. It's too high in-fact, I feel drugged. I haven't had proper sleep these past few days. The magazine still haunts me.