I had started to decide in November, during the company retreat to Cancun that I needed to move on. The amount of animosity between my two bosses kept growing and growing. Both of them were talking to me about what was going on, but neither would talk to the other.

I expressed to John, while in line to go back to the US that if I quit, he and Jim would be forced to reconcile for the business to continue on. John said that if I quit the company would fail… seriously, he said this.

So, in December, at a low point in the company when I returned from a vacation – I decided to leave the company. My resume was being worked on each day as I came to work.

John’s behavior continued on as if nothing were wrong. He submitted a strategic plan for the coming 3 years that had no financial plan at all – when a staff member pointed this out, he appeared at least a little embarrassed – but still believed in his 3 year plan to sell the newsletter, the website, and a massive data base of information people would pay to see. I realized it would be like this regardless of who was working for him, his pipe dreams to make millions instantly are the core of his company.

So I let Jim know in Mid December that I would be giving notice by February 1. He tried to talk me out of it, but at the time he still had hope he and John could work things out.

The day before John fired Jim, I again pleaded with him to reconsider. To give it two weeks where everyone could think about it. But he plowed on and said it had to happen that day, December 31st. Which again leads me to believe his entire motivation for firing Jim was financial – he has to help pay for the Commune in MN.

People who know the company were shocked that day, shocked… not one of them saw this coming at all, not one of them took me seriously when I told them, not one of them thinks the company has a future now that the one person to counter John’s lunacy is no longer there.