Quality, time, and money, pick two [Developing OneVietnam Network]

It’s 2:30 AM here in California.  While our team in Vietnam is about to wrap up their day, I’m surprisingly still wide awake.  I’m going to pay for it in 4 hours: 7:30AM Skype meeting with our developer in Europe.  But I can’t sleep.  An old engineering mantra runs through my head: “Quality, time, and money, pick two.” It’s the choice every project manager has to make.  This internal debate keeps me awake.

First, the choice I don’t have: money. Our problems would quickly be solved if we had the budget to walk into Google and pluck out an engineer or two.  Unfortunately for us, that’s not the case.  OneVietnam Network started about a year ago.  Since inception, every dime for the project has come out of our own savings.  A few of us forgo job offers to commit to the project full-time.  Just like any start-up, we’re strap for cash (Ramen, anyone?).  So, at least for now, we have no choice but to choose to save “money.”  Two more choices to make.

Second, the easy choice: quality. We cannot sacrifice quality.  The stereotype about Vietnamese people, in our own community, is that we take too many shortcuts.  We cannot finish a project.  We are fast and cheap, but sloppy.  Think about the last conversation with your parents: if you needed something fast and cheap, where do they recommend you go?  In the Vietnamese American community I grew up in, there is a marked difference between a “doctor” and a “Vietnamese doctor.”  Sadly, “Vietnamese” has become synonymous with low quality within our community.  We need to change that.

OneVietnam Network is more than a project to build a global network for the Vietnamese community.  It is a project that screams out our desire for change.  We are a generation that wants to be defined by our potential, not our past.  OneVietnam Network stands for the desire of our community to move forward, to be an example of quality and cohesion.  We want to redefine what it means to be “Vietnamese.”  We know it starts with us.  We will not sacrifice on quality.

Third, the only choice: sacrifice time. So we want a high quality project, and we don’t have a lot of money, that leaves only one choice: sacrifice time.  Usually, this means extend the deadline months and years into the future.  But we cannot push this project back.  It has been too long coming.  In the last 35 years, our community has dispersed around in globe in over 30 countries.  The sooner we come together, the sooner we can start making an impact.  With one of the most affluent, successful, and generous community in the world, imagine how great of an impact that will be!

So, we have to sacrifice another kind of time: our time. It’s worth it.  Our team knows it.  That’s why we are up until 3am and wake up at 7am.  That’s why we don’t make excuses about being too tired or too busy.  We know it’s worth it and we have no other choice.

It’s about 3:30AM now. I’m heading back to the codes, the Gantt chart, the PowerPoint.  Sleep is overrated anyways (though I think I might fall into hibernation when we launch this June).  It’s worth it.