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I don't mean to complain about success. ZipRealty, our online real-estate brokerage, is doing very nicely, thank you, and expanding rapidly outside our California base. This brings up the old problem of trying to be in too many places at once. Juan Mini, zipRealty's CEO, and I are at a crucial junction. To back up our expansion, we have to speak at as many e-commerce and real-estate conferences as possible. There's no other way for us to get our message out, and not enough people understand this new business yet. But it really highlights the mounting stress entrepreneurs live with when their companies take off.

This week, I started on a trip to Washington, D.C., Boston, Connecticut, San Francisco, and St. Louis. The pressure was on from the start. Frazzled and held up by the dawn traffic jams on the Bay Bridge, I arrive at San Francisco Airport around 6:15 a.m. There I find Stefan, a manager in our business development group, haggling with the ticket agent. It seems we haven't paid in full for our tickets. That'll be $400, please. Of course we're running late, and we don't have time to fight it, so I pay. However, our administrative group seldom misses things like that. I suspect we just double-paid.

Once onboard, we find ourselves in a row so cramped we can't use our laptops. I read some paperwork during the two hours to Denver. Our schedule is so tight that I hate to lose any working time.

SHOPPING. In Denver, Stefan and I joke about the airport's reputation for losing luggage. I'm not worried. In all my travels, I've never lost a bag. We're more comfortable on our flight out of Denver than we were coming in. Unfortunately, my neighbor is a drunk who regales me with his problems. I listen. What goes around comes around. I can knock out my e-mails later.

We arrive late in D.C. for dinner with our local agent, Mari, and a prospective employee. Lo and behold, the luggage does not arrive -- and we're scheduled to speak the next day. Looks like we face an early-morning shopping spree. Anyone know a haberdasher that opens at 8 a.m.? We wait a long time, file a claim, and head off to dinner.

We've been in transit eight hours, and there's no time to freshen up. Our potential employee has already been waiting an hour. What a way to make an impression. She's gracious about it, and the dinner goes well, even though I have to hurry off. I just barely make it to the hotel for a 9:30 p.m. call that took a month of phone tag to set up. I grab my notes and somehow manage to conduct an hour-long phone interview.

The airline calls. Cancel the shopping spree. Our bags will be delivered at 2 a.m. I spend the next two hours catching up with company managers on various things. (And I've only been gone eight hours.) I run through my presentation a few times and hit the hay. No sooner do I fall asleep than the bellhop taps at my door. My luggage. Thank goodness. I have three hours to sleep before Day 2. Tomorrow has to be better. See you in two weeks.