After over a decade of failing to launch, here's how I'm breaking the pattern

After continually failing to launch projects for over a decade, @kzrl is about to launch this one, come hell or high water. He told me how he's doing it and honestly, I hadn't even heard of one of these tactics.

🤓 Actionable tips: How Karl is breaking a habit of failure

• He uses Jerry Seinfeld's "Don't break the chain" strategy to beat procrastination. Action: Decide on a general task that you want to complete every day (like writing). Get a wall calendar and put a big red X every day that you complete that task. Watch the chain of X's grow. Don't break the chain.
• He builds in public. It's often easier to hold yourself accountable when someone's watching. Action: Start posting your progress, deadlines, goals, etc.
• He follows indie hackers who are building in public. For example, Austin Ginders has been a big inspiration for him. Action: Find people who inspire you. Follow their journey. Learn from them.
• He sets deadlines (and makes them public). Time limitations can increase productivity. Action: Limit your time by setting tight deadlines.
• He celebrates the small wins and puts that energy into driving the next win. Action: What have you achieved this week? Celebrate it (it's Friday 🎉)!

🍿 Food for thought: Sometimes it just feels safer to fail. Karl's a father and he has a day job, so a lack of time would be a good excuse for his abandoned projects. But there's often a deeper reason for our subconscious patterns — and it's usually internal, not external. I think he hit it on the head in our interview when he mentioned that the product stays perfect in his mind instead of being imperfect IRL. Illusions can be comforting, and they're easy to maintain until users are tearing your product apart. I can't speak for Karl, but I know I've sabotaged myself before to keep from failing. Ironic. Question: How can you take responsibility for the ways that you're holding yourself back?

🎙 The interview: Here's how Karl Cordes is going to launch WP Stoic, come hell or high water.👇

I have a pattern of failure with my side-projects. It's played out more than a few times: Good ideas that could be profitable, just kicking around on my hard disk ten years later in half-built prototypes.

It's not like I launched and nobody bought them. Or that they bought them then asked for refunds. This is a much worse sort of failure.

Karl's nasty habit:

Perfectionism, fear, and procrastination meant that they never launched. The projects remain "perfect" in my head instead of imperfect in the real world. Nobody ever sees them. It's all a waste of effort.

Good ideas, but ideas are cheap.

Making a change:

So I posted this milestone as an affirmation. I needed to convince myself that I'll actually get this one done. I will ship this side-project.

The MVP code is 90% there. I just need to get it out the door.

I'm not expecting fanfare or a huge rush of customers, but I'm not going to let this idea die on the vine like so many others. I want to be able to point to this business and say, "I built this."

Bringing out the big guns:

I know I'll make it this time because I'm building in public on Indie Hackers and my blog. Knowing that there might be someone reading gives me a sense of accountability.

In fact, I'm going to give myself a public deadline for shipping this MVP right now.

Karl's commitment:

I commit to having it launched by March 1. I bet I'll be more productive now that my time is limited.

💪 Godspeed, @kzrl.

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