"Irons in the fire" is an idiom that means to be involved in several different activities or plans, or to have multiple potential outcomes in progress. It suggests that someone is taking action on multiple fronts, with the hope of succeeding in at least one.
The phrase originates from blacksmithing, where heating too many pieces of iron at once would cool the fire and prevent proper forging, resulting in none of the irons being properly heated for shaping.
- from online with editing
-----------------------------------
Multitasking is always stressful to humans, as we just can't split our attention as fast as a CPU, and can't do well without focusing on the task at hand.
Yet "Irons in the fire" seems to be the strategy and a necessity to some businesses.
When I worked at now disappeared Nortel, there were always multiple projects going on, with most of them never resulting in sales. I was puzzled by it at first, thinking about all the resources, often hundreds of people + lab equipment, involved, what a waste. But the saying then was: it's normal as long as we succeed one in ten.
Yes, Nortel was very successful in "FiberWorld", the fiber optics technology project during the 7 years when I was there (not because of me, of course 
). But one bad step after another, the company seemed to have lost its focus, perhaps due to too many "Irons in the fire" and became a "flash in the pan".
From being a global leader in telecommunications to bankruptcy in a relatively short period, what a sad and cautionary tale for high tech and for Canada. 
