You decide to just... make it work. Somehow.
You work 70-hour weeks. You cut every corner that can be cut. You negotiate desperately with vendors. You beg the team to work weekends. You promise bonuses you're not sure you can deliver.
Month 2: Three developers quit. You scramble to replace them.
Month 3: A critical vendor dependency falls through. You find an alternative but it's not fully compatible.
Month 4: The scope has somehow doubled despite your best efforts. The CEO keeps saying "just one more small thing."
Month 5: You're sleeping 4 hours a night. You've stopped seeing friends. Your family asks if you're okay. You say you're fine. You're not fine.
Month 6: You deliver... something. It's 60% of what was promised. It's buggy. It barely works. But it technically exists.
The CEO thanks you publicly then privately expresses disappointment. "We really needed those other features."
You take a week off. You sleep for three days straight. You think about career changes. You wonder if this is all there is.
When you return, there's already another "critical" project waiting. Timeline is aggressive but achievable, they say.