An average of 4.5 hours of labour spent on each pair of skis could not be justified. Meanwhile, the primary investor's stock portfolio was taking a beating due to the Dot Com bust and he no longer desired to keep pumping money into the haemorrhaging company.
It wasn't reasonable to spend an average of 4.5 hours on each pair of skis. At the same time, the primary investor's stock holdings were declining because of the Dot Com crash, and he was unwilling to keep putting money into the struggling firm.