I don’t often write about my personal life on Facebook, I don’t think anyone cares and quite honestly it’s not that exciting at all. I am making an exception today because I do not want anyone to have to go through the kind of harassment I’ve had to endure over the past two years. Perhaps you can share in my pain and know that it.. gets better.

I first met Kate at an IT event a few years ago.

Even though she was from Kentucky she wasn’t married to her brother nor had her hand been promised to kinfolk.. there she was.. a 20something girl at an IT event. She could read and write and that probably should have been my first warning sign that something deeply troubling was brewing underneath. I started working with Kate more closely while she was at her previous job and told her about several areas of my business where she could help launch several community initiatives. This is where the fatal attraction started.

At first it was work related.. “Vlad, I want to go on a trip with you. Let’s go to some IT conference so it seems like it’s work” but quickly got more aggressive “Let’s share a cab.. room..” – When we got to the event it got even more awkward – she would stand next to me, talk to our clients about me, constantly ask me about what I was doing that evening..

Things in the office were not any less hostile. For example, every single phone call started with her flashing us.

As I made it clear that my feelings were not the same, things got very weird. A strange mix of intensity and disillusionment. And bad hair and body odors. Now I like to think of those as the “good days” when she at least bothered to put on clothes.

Compounded by hundreds of instant messages, voicemails and emails. All supposedly work related but dripping with innuendo and lust.

It got so bad that I gave Shockey Monkey away for free, with free support and then some in hopes that I would bankrupt the company and make a clean, legal break that would not result in my tires being slashed.. or worse.

I gave her the Looks Cloudy blog in hopes she would meet some other people she could obsess about but that made it even worse as she found even more excuses to talk to me about all the men and women and what she thought of them.

Eventually she got the message and is finally moving on.

But Seriously…

Obviously all of the above is made up.

As a CEO of a small business you know the kinds of people that work for you and exactly what their departure from the company is going to look like. Most people are gone with a whimper and replaced with a video, shell script, automation, software or just a simple email reassignment. Then there are people that are, for better or worse, critical to the business because they are both versatile and capable of adjusting quickly to a fast paced nature of ever changing technology business.

Some people are only leaving ExchangeDefender in a body bag.

Others in handcuffs.

I hope I leave in a blaze of glory carrying an empty shotgun, lighter and an empty canister of gasoline in one hand and a letter to Lloyds of London insurance group in the other.

Then there are those that from the moment you hire them you know they are destined for something bigger and you just hope to keep them interested for long enough and that they build a solid foundation for new lines of business down the road.

I originally pitched a gig at OWN two years ago and although I had considered dozens of folks for it, she was pretty much the only one that could do the job. The pitch was simple: “I have a few business plans underway as we transform the cloud business but to be honest they are all just a mess of concepts that you’ll have to clean up and build into real product lines or services” – several months later you saw the launch of Shockey Monkey as a commercial product, then a few months later the launch of Looks Cloudy and tons of other services that you’re yet to hear about.

At ExchageDefender we work as a team – even at the Vice President level – and meet almost daily. Kate didn’t do what she did on her own but she brought a unique skill that very few people have – she was able to read my mind. I could explain what I was thinking about or looking for in very crude terms and she could deliver something real out of that. There was no need to micromanage or be involved on every project, both the little details and the big picture were taken care of without me.

In two years here Kate turned more concepts into products and services than I ever expected. Her role at ExchangeDefender will not be replaced as she has turned one VP role in what will likely be fielded by 3-5 different product managers and editors.

Folks always ask me about defining professional success: It’s leaving far more than what you found when you got there. That’s capitalism, that is entrepreneurism – building, growing and constantly looking to make things better.

Kate is leaving the ExchangeDefender family and I could not be more proud of what she has accomplished here and what she has helped us become. It is in no small part thanks to her that thousands of IT organizations now have an amazing platform to build their business. The new role that she is taking on will be announced next week and I know she will do an outstanding job at it.

We will miss her.

P.S. Yes, her severance package does include a hairbrush.

This is a post for the new category named Rants. Now most of the rants will likely be very abrasive in support of my Vladville alter ego which keeps most of you too scared to call me so I can actually manage to get something done at work. Don’t let people tell you Vlad is nice and you need to call Vlad, I bite people. Often and hard. On the neck.

I love my job.

I love my company.

I am immensely proud of what we’ve been able to build at Own Web Now over the past decade. Every year I look at my company and cannot believe how different we are from the previous year.

But man… I haaaaaaaaate what my job involves. Here is my average work day which by some miracle has left hair on top of my head. I am truly blessed to be the living proof that the evolutionary history of the human species involved monkeys – if my body wasn’t 99% covered by hair, I’d be bald. Either from stress or ripping my hair up or setting it on fire.

Here are my average tasks during the day which have left me at least partially insane and completely disoriented. I am routinely pressed (under critical deadlines) to make decisions about stuff that won’t happen for months or years. For example, I need to approve a flyer today so it can see the light of day next quarter and I’m also expected to pull out numbers out of my ass on a whim – how many people will work in the Orlando office in 2014, how many bread racks you can fit in a 10×10 cage, the turnaround time of a vendor shipping from Texas to Texas and if I remember where I ordered 2 post telco racks 8 years ago.

Now if I lived in the la la land of the future, that would be great! But no – I also need to make decisions on the spot – how much to charge for this, do I want to give client X a call, can we please fire partner B for being abusive to support, do you remember that contract you signed yesterday, was anything in those 36 pages related to transferability of the licensing between companies?

Keep in mind that almost none of this is my job – it’s all done by others in the organization and they just ping me for feedback, advice, review or opinion. So the actual outcome or decision is not something that I would explicitly make on my own.

Then 5 PM comes around. This is typically when people have given up on life and their careers and they write some of the nastiest crap I don’t think they’d ever be able to say to another human being. But you know what, I give everyone my email and my cell phone and never remember to say: It’s not for therapy sessions. If you’re rude to me, I will flat out refuse to help you. Every now and then I mess up and try to help only to get more personal insults flung my way.

Then I sit behind my sports car, slam the accelerator and burn away all my problem.

So what?

Listen, none of us have a perfect job, and I have a pretty kickass one.

The economic downturn has been rough on many companies and things are not recovering – not for everyone, not everywhere.

Every minute of every day you have an opportunity to quit. Many do. Many just struggle with the challenge.

If you’re thinking about starting a business, recognize that the challenge is not just in a dimension of effort and passion, you have to have a very thick skin and incredible level of dedication to the mission – so it better be one you can live with.

Every day I am asked for Quick Guides, Startup Shortcuts, every trick and shortcut that could help. There are none. None. Whatever you cut corners on to get from A to B you will be paying for (many times over) in the future.

Pick up cardio. Weight training. Anything mind numbing and repetitive. It will put you face to face with the option to give up on an almost consistent basis – but will also give you the thrill of accomplishment and moving forward.

Some people are just happy with the comfort. They don’t want to move forward. They are happy where they are. If you want more than that, be prepared to give a lot more than that.