It was a fantasy or a burnout plan.
Everyone working alone keeps the same list. Four or five projects. One of them shipping, two of them stalled, one that would take a weekend if a weekend ever came free. The work is rarely hard. There is just one of you.
The two ways out were both bad. Hire, and you take on payroll, management and a monthly number before there is revenue to cover it. Don’t hire, and you work down the list one item at a time while it grows from the other end.
I picked the second one and called it focus.