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How I quit my job and failed at being an indie hacker

Background

Three years ago, I was lucky to get a job as a software engineer straight out of college. I was joining a brand new team on a brand new product within the company. The product wasn't in the company's wheelhouse. The people on the team hadn't worked together very long, creating poor social dynamics. It wasn't fulfilling.

The Indiehacker Itch

I had stumbled upon Indiehackers and related content. I became a firm believer in bootstrapping and knew that's what I wanted to do. I knew general lessons to follow, but I hadn't internalized anything.

I kept thinking to myself: "If I could quit my job and focus full-time on this side project, I would be successful and never have to work for someone else again."

Taking the leap

On November 8, 2019, I left my job. I thought I was quitting to start a business. In reality, I had become unemployed.

I had grand ideas for this side project I had been working on. I now had the time to pursue those ideas. I thought to myself, "I need to build a few more features, and it will be ready to show to people and validate my idea."

Trapped in a Loop

I was able to generate a small amount of traffic to the website. The responses I was getting were indifferent. I kept believing that people didn't understand the vision. I needed to build more features, and they would understand it.

It made so much sense in my head.

This thinking trapped me. Every time I met indifference as feedback, I would lose confidence. I'd think up what features were missing that would excite people. Excited to work on new ideas, I would bunker down and churn out a bunch of code. I'd get burned out. After a few days of recharging, I would try to get feedback. That feedback was almost always indifference.

It's been seven months. I have shipped Polished, but it's nothing great.

The Big Realization

I was letting my ego drive my decision making. I thought I could build amazing features without doing the work of solving any real problems.

I started to realize what I was doing wasn't practical after a conversation about it with a friend this past weekend. I have gotten a bit of interest from people about the concept, but the execution isn't there.

Back to Basics

I'm taking a break from Polished. I still have a few months of runway left.

I'm going to reread and do my best to follow the lessons shared by others who have been successful at this. I'm going to talk to as many people as I can before diving in on an idea. I'm going to work in public and write about everything I do along the way.

If you're interested in this new journey, follow me here on Indiehackers or on Twitter! Feel free to DM me about what you're working on, and I'll be sure to check it out and follow you back.

  1. 18

    Everyone dreams about succeeding at their first try. But the reality is that 99% of the time you need to go through multiple failures first.

    Don’t give up!

  2. 7

    Hey Ryan, thanks for sharing. I wouldn't call this a failure, quitting your job to go all in is a brave move and these set backs are pretty much what every entrepreneur goes through and sounds like you've learnt a lot.

    I've been doing this for 10 years and still don't get features or market fit right, I've launched more products that have failed than ones that have been successful.

    Now is a good time for you to experiment and find something that works.

    1. 2

      Thank you! I'm trying to share a lot more now.

      I'm looking at it as one small failure on the road to success. There will probably be many more along the way.

      I needed to accept that how I had approached things thus far wasn't the best course of action. When I wasn't accepting of that, I just kept doing the same thing over and over getting nowhere. I burned out and not making any progress. I now feel ready to take on the next thing and do a few more things right.

  3. 3

    After 2.5 years thinking "if only I could have passive income so I could focus on my research" and going after it as IH, reaching zero bank balance several times and loosing all hope, I started thinking "maybe I'm not up for this. and these years, I could've easily spent doing research aside a dayjob".

    But I realized, for me, it couldn't have been any other way. The "itch" was too big, my whole personality is made to be daring and to not have regrets of never even trying. And I am fine with that. No matter the price, the stress, the disappointment, you always stay true to yourself and just do what you desire. (that doesn't mean "be reckless af"!)

    Good luck, mate! :)

    1. 2

      I can relate. I had a bunch of people on Reddit reply to this with "Get a job immediately". I'm fine without one right now, money isn't everything, and I know I will hate myself if I go back to a horrible job.

      1. 2

        It's hard now this way, but it's impossible any other way. So then just endure the hard times. 🙌

  4. 3

    "I knew general lessons to follow, but I hadn't internalized anything."

    I think that's a great point to make. I often think I understand many things, I agree with many things I read about what not to do, and I'll do it anyway.

    Experiencing something is different than reading about it. Thinking to understand something is really different than internalizing it, as you say.

    I think it's a balance: learning, testing by doing, see the results, trying to get feedback, rinse and repeat.

    It takes a lot of time, it asks for a lot of patience, but I think the most important is to enjoy the ride a minimum. If you don't, your motivation will go away.

    1. 1

      I often think I understand many things, I agree with many things I read about what not to do, and I'll do it anyway.

      So much this!

    2. 1

      Yeah, absolutely! The point about enjoying the ride is spot on. In the beginning, I really enjoyed working on Polished because it was the first time as a developer I was totally free to work on what I wanted to.

      Recently, I've been unhappy with working on it but not admitting that it had become a failure.

      It becomes easier to enjoy the ride when you're honest with yourself, don't let your ego get in the way, so that you can identify and accept failures faster. If you can move past the stuff dragging you down, you'll enjoy things a lot more.

      1. 2

        It's very hard to let go an idea we nurtured and worked on for a long time. It's hard to admit that we are unhappy with it, too, but it's essential. We are not our ideas. We are not what we build. We don't lose a part of ourselves by letting them go.

        It seems that you internalized many things during your ride, and that's a big success for me.

  5. 3

    Hi Ryan,

    This is a very familiar story, I have been building products for the last 15 years with varying levels of small success.

    I have chosen to build products whilst freelancing, so I can freelance and make time for projects, other options would be to stay in a Job or get funding.

    Now that you have gone through the process, you will have learned quite a few things with regards to being a full stack developer, founder, someone who has to look at the bigger picture, what it takes to make things happen and the need for some source of income which includes a lot of resource management. This is all experience you can use in life.

    You will be better on the next one and when one succeeds, you will still refer back to this experience.

    1. 1

      I agree freelancing while building is the best way to go.

  6. 3

    Hi Ryan, thanks for sharing it. Resonates with my story. I've seen many coming here, wanting to start (including me) a new product, reading successful stories and going all in.

    I need to build a few more features, and it will be ready to show to people and validate my idea

    This is what I noticed, people start building and expecting success without talking to anyone, not building an audience beforehand.

    I believe we should keep trying to do whatever we feel, but there is no overnight success. If you build, they will not come instantly.

    This friendly community Is the place to learn and ask for help whenever you need. People are so supportive.

    Good luck in your journey, feel free to connect and discuss more

    1. 1

      Thanks Leo! It's definitely hard to balance going with the gut feeling and being analytical enough.

      When I made the decision to quit my job, all of the analysis I did was just to make sure that I wouldn't go homeless if I did this. I hated my corporate job so much that I convinced myself that I just had to do it.

      Whether or not that was the best decision at the time doesn't really matter now. I've got the experience under my belt and ready to take on the next thing.

  7. 3

    Hi Ryan! I can relate to this story so much, except I didn't finish any projects because I was seeking all the time for the "jackpot" idea.

    I gave myself 9 months of runway to create something useful for other people and generate some income to survive. Now it's been 8 months of total failure (except for knowledge gain in programming).

    A few days ago, I picked up and started to work on idea that I believe can have some potential.

    Followed you on Twitter.

    1. 2

      Man, this sounds exactly what I did. I can commiserate hard.

      Have you done anything to validate your new idea?

      I have something I'm working on. This time, I'm building design mockups and a landing page with an email drop before writing code for the product. I'm going to write another post about going through that validation.

      Would love to swap thoughts about the right way to go about validating ideas without wasting time since we are both in the same position.

      1. 2

        No haven't done anything to validate my idea, but I should.
        Right now I'm trying to build most simplest version and landing page I can do in 5 days or less.

        It would be awesome to swap thoughts on ideas & validation and even give some feedback! DM me on Twitter, let's have a chat.

  8. 2

    @rywils21
    I was in a similar position 10 years ago, I know how you feel trust me. And I am still trying to recover from that failure(too much ego , overlooked the importance of marketing ). But you know what, my biggest mistake was to go find a job right away and not pursuing that dream. So You need to keep on going, Do your research next time, Build something that people want and will pay for not what you think people need. You are not alone and as corny as it may sounded "failure is another path to success"

    1. 2

      Right on. Thank you for the encouragement! I don't plan to get a job right away. I'm gonna keep trying a few things first. If I do get a job, I'm gonna look for something that is easy but could be somewhat fulfilling and not related to coding. Then I'll have the mental energy to focus on projects outside of work.

      1. 2

        @rywils21 That's the spirit glad to hear that man. Looking forward for your future projects.

  9. 2

    Great learning and thanks for sharing! And yes, don't give up :)

    1. 1

      Thank you! So much great encouragement here on IH :)

  10. 2

    Hey Ryan, thanks for sharing!

    Sounds like the start to a successful journey! Many people fail to realize that they are not succeeding. And even if they do, they often spend many more than 7 months realizing it.

    Good luck, and just remember that you've learned quite a bit already if you're making this post : )

    1. 2

      I'm glad you enjoyed it!

      That's exactly how I feel. As I wrote this, I could feel it turning into a huge learning moment.

      1. 2

        For sure!

        The part about quitting your job also resonates with me a lot. I am still working at my full time job, though I have wondered when the right time will be to leave.

        We've got something in the works, but it's hard to tell if I should grow it slowly from financial safety, or if I should give it the time it needs to really take off.

        1. 2

          Ultimately, that will have to be your decision to make on when you feel the time is right. No matter when you do it, you can decide to either just move forward or dwell on that decision. Just make sure you keep moving forward :)

          If I was in that position knowing what I know now, I would try to pick a product idea that doesn't take a ton of time to build. Something like a text editor (my case) is not that! Big lesson learned there. I would also try to get at least one paying customer.

  11. 2

    Great post. Can relate wholeheartedly. Start with the customer and work your way back to the product.

  12. 2

    Thanks for sharing. Your story is indeed what's perhaps even the most likely to happen. Don't beat yourself up. Learn from the mistakes and continue :).

  13. 2

    Thanks for sharing. I've been trying to do side projects for several years but have always had to return to paid work. It's a learning process - mostly learning what I don't know (in my case this is marketing!) so that I can then focus on improving my game in that area.

    Slowly, though, I'm making some progress and finally getting some traction.

    Keep at it and don't stop!

    1. 1

      I feel you. Have you ever tried to start a project and do only marketing first? Like, build a landing page before any code. Write posts and then discuss on all different social media?

      I'm interested if you've ever done this because it's what I'm going to try next! I want to see if I can generate demand before spending a lot of time coding.

      1. 2

        No I never have. I guess it's something I should try at some point!

        1. 1

          I'm doing it for a new project. I've never done it before, but so far it's a much better experience. I'm able to engage with people about the idea before spending any time coding and when I do go build the MVP I'm going to have people ready to try it out.

          It's given me a lot more confidence this time around.

  14. 2

    I believe strong purpose and persistence are the path to success. All the best to you!

  15. 2

    Thank you for sharing your story Ryan, I feel I'm on the same boat.
    I lost my job and sold all my stocks to become an indie hacker .. I would be lying if I said I know what I'm doing, to be accurate, at this stage I'm not trying to find success as much as trying to fail fast and learn

    1. 1

      Wow, that's an inspiring story! I followed you and am excited to see where you go next on your journey.

      Feel free to DM any time if you wanna chat about ideas!

  16. 2

    Thanks for sharing Ryan, I'm sorry to hear Polished hasn't worked out for you but it sounds like you've learned some valuable lessons - so maybe a win after all 😊

    Good luck with the new project, interested to see you sharing your journey - will it just be on twitter or also on IH?

    1. 1

      Thank you! Yep, I'll keep sharing on IH. IH the best community ☺️

      The way I did this post, and plan to do more in the future is I wrote an outline, then a draft, then edited the draft as though I was writing a blog post. I then adapted that post for Indiehackers, a twitter thread, a reddit post, and on producthunt. Only took about 30 minutes to adapt to all these platforms and I hope I can get faster in the future.

      My plan is to take the discussions from these posts and roll all the feedback into the draft and make a full-blown blog post.

      Of all the places I posted, IH has definitely been the most friendly and thoughtful place so I'll definitely keep posting here.

      1. 2

        Yeah for sure, such great vibes here 🥰.

        Nice plan on the cross-posting front. In my experience it definitely gets more efficient as time passes, unless you're trying Twitter, IH, Hackernews (etc) style content on somewhere like instagram or TikTok etc, then it sucks cause you really have to reinvent the whole format!

        1. 1

          Oh yeah, if anything ever starts to feel like a burden, I'm just gonna stop posting on that platform. Indiehackers and Reddit are roughly the same so that's pretty easy. I just change a few words. I used a Twitter thread maker to lay out my Twitter content.

          I plan to write about how this cross-posting goes!

  17. 2

    Reminds me my story too. Thanks for sharing it:) Wish you good luck) I think if we will not stop- we succeed.) I wouldn't change either because I am not happy in corporate world)

    1. 1

      Right on. I think many people share a similar story. It's so hard to understand from reading about other's experiences.

      The key seems to be to experience this stuff yourself but learn the lessons as fast as possible. Also, never stop!

  18. 2

    Hey Ryan 👋

    Your story is really inspiring in a way even though it’s been rough. I like how you don’t try to play it up like “Yee I did $50000 in sales this month” etc. starting a company is hard work, a reality I have been hit with this spring when I decided to start my little endeavour.
    It’s good that the mass media advertises entrepreneurship and starting businesses but far too often starting is made out to be some sort of fairytale where one can just register a company and become a millionaire overnight.

    I’m new here on Indie Hackers (heh actually joined today 😅) Going to follow your story for sure!

    1. 1

      Hey! 👋

      Thank you for the kind words. Even though it's been rough, I wouldn't change it if I could go back. I might shorten the time I spent doing the same thing over and over with no results. But having done that has made this realization much more impactful.

      I see a lot of the fairytale chasing, but I also see a good amount of people talking about how hard it is. It's difficult to appreciate just how hard it is without doing it.

      I wish you the best of luck with your endeavors! Feel free to connect if you ever need some feedback.

  19. 1

    Hey Ryan, just gave polished a look and it seems to me that your issue is more marketing than market Fit. For example theres no way for me to test drive your product as a first time lander on the website. I see pics and know what youre trying to do but without a demo theres very little reason for me to join the beta. Just my$0.02. DM Me on twitter if you wanna chat growth. Cheers and best of luck !

  20. 1

    It takes huge courage to take the leap like what you did. Thanks for sharing your side of the story.

    I'm gonna follow your journey and be there when you celebrate the big win!

  21. 1

    I did the same leap you did.

    I have learned don't spend to much time on one idea or in code land - stick to the most important feature of your product. Seven months is a long time.

    Do everything you can to reduce your costs, the reality is it is a 1 - 3 or more year journey. Runway is aviation and venture capital talk.

  22. 4

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 1

      Exactly. Going forward I'm going to be more honest with myself about what's failed so that I can move on and get closer to success.

  23. 5

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 2

      That's awesome you've started!

      Definitely lots of patience, exploration, and learning here. That's what life is all about 😊

      1. 2

        This comment was deleted a year ago.

  24. 2

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

    1. 2

      I would absolutely quit my job again. I was making a ton of money as a software engineer but I was so unhappy. If I had stayed, I don't think I would have learned any of this stuff.

      I also felt pretty comfortable that if I completely failed I would be able to get another job as a software engineer. I'm also okay with making less money. I'm lucky enough to have paid off all of my debt while I was employed and I try to live with the bare minimum expenses. I derisked my situation in that sense which helped me feel more comfortable financially.

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