Saturday I attended the Grand Opening Celebration of the new Wyoming Whiskey distillery in Kirby, Wyoming. While this was the formal opening, they had actually started production on July 4, a good day for making whiskey.
The food was excellent, and some excellent wines and beers were available. I didn't stay for the band, but I hear tell they were very good. It seemed like half the county was there. That isn't quite true, but the town of Kirby (population 57) experienced a massive population growth for the day. In fact, there were enough folks there to justify someone actually directing traffic!
I got an excellent tour of the facility. Having worked in factories and done electrical work for stage and film production, I was pleased with what I saw of the facility. They had one huge shed built for aging, and will build one a year for the next five years to house each year's production. The owners are clearly investing good money, and clearly planning on being around for a while. Like almost everyone else in the county, I await some product.
By the nature of their product, they are going to have to plan on being around. Federal law requires they age their bourbon at least two years. Some distilleries release a two or three year old product, known as a "baby bourbon". But these guys aren't. Depending on how things go, they plan to age their product five or six years, a more typical age for a bourbon.
Now, compare that with the typical software project. Five years? Six? And throwing a party for friends and neighbors when you don't plan on any ROI for at least five years? In the software industry? Some time after the Irish build a monument to Cromwell!