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27 Comments

Give other indie hackers one piece of advice

Hey,

Everyone has at least one piece of life/career advice they carry with them that has had an impact on their lives.

What's yours?

  1. 13

    “You Don't Get What You Deserve. You Get What You Negotiate.”

  2. 8

    Don't ask anyone should you go after your idea. Just go.

  3. 6

    Be patient with yourself.

  4. 5

    The five-minute favor - “You should be willing to do something that will take you five minutes or less for anybody”

  5. 5

    Business exists to support people. Not people serving business.

  6. 4

    Talk to your customers, like they're family.

  7. 4

    Early on I had the position of “I’m just the canvas creator and my customers paint the painting”. I didn’t believe I could provide value to customers beyond software creation (my core competency).

    Customers are looking for solutions and leadership. Don’t be afraid to lead your customers with best practices and processes.

    1. 1

      Customers are looking for solutions and leadership. Don’t be afraid to lead your customers with best practices and processes.

      This is really great, @srhyne - I'm sure you've heard it but Steve Jobs had a good quote about this.

  8. 3

    Focus on one project at a time

  9. 3

    "Do things that don't scale" - especially when starting out and trying to build your customer base and initial community. http://paulgraham.com/ds.html

  10. 3

    Beware of so called investors who fish your idea tell you to get a job try put you down and copy it, i learned this the hard way last week, wrapped up in 1 sentence. Dont talk too much.

  11. 3

    Make the BEST content, for free

  12. 3

    "How can I help this person"

  13. 2

    If you've never launched anything before, just launch. It doesn't matter what it is. Make something in a day and shoot it at the internet. Then post it here and you will learn many lessons.

  14. 2

    If you ask, you might get it.
    If you don't ask, you will not get it.

    1. 2

      Or "If you don't ask the answer is always no"

  15. 2

    Stop over-intellectualizing it. Do the simple thing.

    1. 2

      And another is "Forget all the features you can build. Focus on ONE THING and make it really, really good."

  16. 1

    Feedback is important, but understand who you're taking it from.

  17. 1

    "Never wrestle with a pig"

    My grandfather had a workshop in the basement and a banner hanging on the wall that said,

    Never wrestle with a pig.
    You'll both get dirty (and the pig likes it).

    It's my favorite bit of advice, and has steered me right many, many times.

    Lots of people are great but there's no shortage of jerkiness in the world. You'll encounter endless temptations to engage in drama.

    Your own energy is finite.

    When you encounter it, don't take that bait. You'll save yourself so much hassle if you take the high road, and

    Never wrestle with a pig!

    Also

    DON'T DATE ROBOTS!

  18. 1

    Doing less is better.

    Product, Marketing, Content, Features......... in the early days

  19. 1

    That thing everyone tells you to do, or not to do, but you think you can do without? Do that thing.

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    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 5

      Lol, said albert enstein😂

      1. 1

        This comment was deleted a year ago.

          1. 1

            This comment was deleted a year ago.

  22. 6

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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