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21 Comments

How do you tackle not feeling ready or technical enough to start?

Ideas come and go and the reason I usually don't start is that I feel like I'm not ready and I need to read up on marketing, dev processes, testing, acquiring users and a lot of facets that are crucial to a businesses success.
How have fellow IndieHackers overcome this?

@csallen

#ask-ih

  1. 9

    I use to just do stuff. Commit to a thing/idea. See what I could make of it. Experiment, play, research. Discuss and learn from others. If I enjoyed it and had the time, I would continue. Or if I saw some kind of traction, that would also give me the encouragement to keep going.

    It's so easy to get in the trap of feeling like you don't know enough, that you need to learn more, and more and more. Everyone will want to work in different ways, from my experience, the best way to learn is just by doing.

  2. 4

    I think one of the best things about tech is that once you launch a product, you can always iterate and make it better. Nothing is set in stone.

    When I was in school for Computer Science, I had an inflated sense of perfectionism because I had 1-time deadlines. When I started working on side projects after school, I had a tough time launching because I felt like I didn’t know enough and had to do 20 things before I could get my site out.

    Working in the software industry helped me realize that the process of building a product is never truly “complete” — there will always be improvements that you can make. So even if your site design isn’t beautiful, or your performance is a bit slow, etc., you can always improve these things with time. (And if you think about it, improvements can be a marketing strategy in themselves.)

    What I do on a daily basis:

    • I remind myself that we become experts through a combination of learning and doing, not just by learning (you can learn a whole bunch of techniques, but application of the technique may be different than what you read) and not just by doing (you can repeatedly make the same mistakes/repeatedly do something in an inefficient manner when there's a better solution).

    • I believe in starting my day by doing something actionable (writing/deploying code or writing down prospects) and then learning later in the day. I do this because learning in the beginning of the day can sometimes make me hesitant to start coding and introduce doubts (like oh man, this person is telling me to market in a way that I’m not used to. Maybe I should spend a few hours on that before I do my other tasks for the day?).

    Sorry to ramble, but I hope that helps somewhat. Good luck!

    1. 1

      Thanks for the rambling @asitwala, it does help!

  3. 3

    Pick a simple enough idea, then just start. And ignore any thoughts that you can't do it. How else will you be "ready or technical enough" without just launching and learning from it?

    No job at a business will prepare you as well as just launching.

  4. 2

    I'll be honest, it's hard for me to relate. If anything I have the opposite problem — a burning desire to start. I start things prematurely without doing the "right" things beforehand. I used to feel really bad about doing that. But through Indie Hackers I've gotten to meet a lot of truly amazing people. I'm good friends with a lot of them now. I'm always so excited to look and see how they do things, to learn from them. And you know what? Most of the time, they feel the same way about me! Turns out, none of us have our shit together. But we just do it anyway, and most of what we try doesn't work out, but some of it does, and that's the stuff people pay attention to.

    1. 1

      Thanks @csallen! Trying it all!

  5. 2

    Hey Issa 👋I've felt un-ready for most things in my life so far. 😬 But talking with friends and family about any nerves, what I expect from myself (it's usually unrealistic), and what's actually realistic (a first small step, then another) has helped me the most in the past. Frequent conversations give me perspective, remind me what I've done so far, and help me think through best and worst-case scenarios.

    Related: I think I've read this "leap when you're almost ready" article at least 3x already this year. It always encourages me! Maybe you'd like it? http://casnocha.com/2017/05/youre-almost-ready.html

    And I know you didn't ask for reading recs, but you might like some of the blogs and newsletters in here: https://builtbykrit.com/blog/worth-your-time-the-best-content-for-non-technical-saas-founders-in-2019. I'm sure you've heard of a lot of them, but you might find one or two that are new for when you're reading up!

    1. 1

      Thanks @lbosco! The reading recs are useful as ever!:-)

  6. 2

    Hi @issa,

    From what you said I guess you are a very perfectionist person. Aiming perfection and thinking big is good if it makes you act and gives you the energy to keep going on, but when it paralyzes and sabotages you, it's better to change some of your believes and adopt empowering ones.

    The good news here is that overcoming it is possible if you change your mindset. Here you have some beliefs you can adopt to let go the old way of thinking that is not useful anymore:

    • I can do continuous improvement, what I do today it's not forever it's just a first step
    • The more I do, the more I learn, and the more I progress
    • Mistakes are not a failure anymore, they are an opportunity to grow and develop myself
    • All big and famous projects also started being something small and simple. What all they had in common is a vision, a dream, they trusted in themselves and get started. Think about Facebook, Apple, Google. How were they at the beginning? They are so big now because they started

    Try to find out what are the messages and believes that come to your mind and that make you stop and give up. Write them down and transform them into new and empowering beliefs, and train your mind to adopt them. Your way of thinking is a habit, and like any other habit, it's just a matter of practice and repetition.

    Remember: the best moment to start is now, because is the only instant that exists! :)

    1. 1

      Thanks alot @AndreaArcusa! Read me like a book here :-).

  7. 2

    Hey Issa, usually I set goals and try and pick the most effective path to accomplishing them fun fact I only learnt to code in the last 4 months of 2018. So I'm still new to it but honestly I'm realizing how good I am at solving problems and building out features. In most cases I have no idea what I am doing and stack-overflow helps and when I'm done I usually wind up with a slightly better understanding of a concept.

    So what I did:
    -Found a javascript course on udemy that solidified my understanding of the basics.
    -I took notes during this time.
    -Then I did a node.js course.
    -My goals for the node.js was to understand how the mvc pattern works and how to use express and what express is.
    -I then quickly glanced at how to connect a database to my front-end and started building stuff.
    -First thing I built was a landing page for a startup idea I've always had over here- http://www.kapp.co.ke/
    -I always go back to the course to learn new things and concepts.
    -I recently made an authentication workflow for my side project I had never made one before but guess what after a week of learning and debugging it works perfectly.
    -This week I'm doing form and error handling.
    -Next week for sure is integrating payments.

    What I'm trying to say is make small actionable goals and just figure out how to accomplish them at your own pace. One day you know nothing and a week later your like "wow, never thought would have gotten here good job me".

    Just try and do even if its one thing.

    Anyway see you around Indie Hackers <3

    1. 1

      Thanks @charleskiarie, one day at a time!

  8. 2

    I like to think of it like a ratchet. You don't need to screw in the bolt all the way on your first go, you just need to make progress. Luckily, with code, nothing is going to be undone by you stepping back and deciding to take more time to learn.

    I bet you'll find that you make more progress than you think! Best of luck.

  9. 2

    You just start.

    I am fully self learned, even when I went to Uni I mostly learned math, not so much programming.

    The only way to start learning is to literally start learning, it will take time but eventually it will click and then continue to click. All of a sudden you can start creating small projects yourself :)

    I'm soon to start Marketing, and I have no idea how to do it. As usual I just guess I'll have to start. Although I'll admit it's daunting and a bit scary

    1. 2

      Thanks @tallkotten! I don't thing the scary part will ever end :-)

  10. 1

    This comment was deleted 5 years ago.

  11. 2

    This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

    1. 1

      This is wholly awesome, @sheldoncwright!
      Do you have more of this type of thinking?

      1. 3

        This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

        1. 1

          Thanks alot @sheldoncwright!
          This is really amazing!

  12. 2

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 1

      Thanks @zwm, relating to other people facing the same issue normalizes it. One step at a time!

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