Pressure

I like pressure. If I'm not really really busy, I get bored, and when I get bored I get depressed. No, I much prefer to be run off my feet, always on the move from one thing to the next.

The downside of this is that you can never stop for a moment. If you're busy keeping six plates spinning, you always have to be moving from one to the next. If you want to add something new, of do something unexpected, chances are you can't.

Another problem is that the only way to maintain that level of business is to use a tight schedule. Things have to run to time, and time has to be allocated in regular blocks. You can block out every Monday of the year easily enough; you can't randomly pick six Mondays during the year, at least not if you want to do other things with the other 46 Mondays.

At Cadence, I was asked on more than one occasion whether I was single. The answer was always yes. When asked why, the answer was always that I didn't have the time. No-one ever believed that. But, sadly, it was absolutely true.