First time launching a side project after 10+ projects failed. What changed this time? 🤔

I’m Amine Aouragh, 21, an introvert web developer building projects in public and building an audience on Twitter.

I started learning web development as a self-taught since October 2020 with FreeCodeCamp.

Since that time I tried to get out of tutorial hell by trying to build something on my own - from scratch. Something that I can have on my portfolio. Something that I can show on my resume. Something that I can share with people. Something to feel proud of.

The real reason behind why I wanted to build side projects was trying to get a job. So I wanted to showcase side projects on my resume.

But I never could go far with any of the side projects I worked on.

I wanted to impress recruiters with big, complex projects more than building them for my own learning.

That was a HUGE mistake 😱😱

• I wasn't learning
• I was wasting time
• I was wasting energy
• I felt demotivated

I found myself jumping from idea to another without making any achievements.

Even if I felt an interest and excitement to work on a certain project at the beginning, after a lot of overthinking and planning and also the idea of impressing recruiters with a complex project wasn't helping so I was abandoning projects one after another 😬

So at the end getting a job wasn't motivating enough and also I was doing it wrong 😒

What I really needed is to feel a STRONG connection with a side project 💪

Something that I'm REALLY passionate about, not just any project idea.

Joining Twitter and also building an audience there and getting to know other people, share my story and start conversations taught me a lot and also helped me aim at the right star.

I should build something that I'm passionate about, that other people would use and that solves a problem.

I LOVED movies & shows 😍

I already knew about TMDb.

So I decided to build something around movies and tv shows 🎬

Not only that but I also needed something that would push me to keep going no matter what and don't abandon this one too. NOT AGAIN.

How about a challenge? YEAH challenging myself.

So I challenged myself to build & launch an MVP in... ONE WEEK

OHHH BOY!!! I never set a challenge like that for myself before 😲

I tweeted about it on my profile and kept journaling my build in public journey for more than 2 months.

TWO MONTHS???

But the goal was to build it in one week as I said earlier no?

Well because I failed to complete it.

YEAH... it was a short time for me. I wasn't comfortable enough with the TMDb API and I was still learning how to work with the useEffect hook, fetching external data and make it work the way I want...

I needed more time. So how about launching it in the next week?

FAILED again! 😧

Then I thought about giving up 👀

OHHH NO! There is no giving up this time.

Got you good huh? 😜

Why didn't I give up?

"You FAILED for two times dude".

That's what I used to do before, no? That's what I was good at: Abandoning projects.

But this time things were different ✨

I was MUCH more motivated to get this side project done and launched more than any project before 🚀

HOW?

Because of PEOPLE. Because of FRIENDS. Because of REAL FRIENDS. Because of REAL FRIENDS WHO CHANGED MY LIFE.

When I decided to start using Twitter more seriously as said earlier and started showing up and talking to people I got to know many other indie hackers and creators. They were building their own projects too. Some of them - more experienced - were building SaaS products and making money.

They were supporting me. They seemed to love the idea so now I knew that I got a good idea that I should keep working on and don't stop.

So I kept pushing until...

LAUNCH DATE: May 6th, 2022 🚀🚀🚀

I will always remember this day as the day I took the courage for the first time to launch a side project.

I programmed the launch for 5pm GMT and in the last minute before launch I only had two options:

So I launched it.

My first ever side project live on the web.

🎉MovyDick 🎉

A movie/show recommendation app 🎬 where you can pick a movie or show to watch in one click.

What's special about it is that you get only ONE movie or show per click.

No more infinite scrolling like on Netflix or Amazon Prime with dozens of movies/shows that make it so hard to decide what to watch 🤔

What some of the early users said about the app 👇

Yesterday I shipped a new feature: STREAMING SERVICES!!! 🚀

From now on you can not only choose WHAT to watch but also WHERE you can watch it.

You can give it a try whenever you want - it's FREE for now - and I would love to hear your feedback (including any issues you encountered or things you see could be better with some improvement and also what would you like to see on MovyDick in the future).

So... what are you watching next? 😜

👉 PICK A MOVIE/SHOW NOW

You can send me a DM on Twitter, I'm very active there: @TheAmineAouragh
If I got your attention you can even follow me there because Twitter people are ALWAYS the first ones to know about any new update and everything about my build in public journey or any new side project announcement.

See you there, amigos! 😜