Hi everyone,
Long time lurker here. Need some help / ideas from community.
Quick background info: I've established and grew a digital products business for the last 5 years. I've really enjoyed in the process, especially in the beginning. Due to the digital nature of products, I've automated most of the things and it is mostly passive income (besides customer support and such). It earns quite nice (6 figures), I am quite proud of it but I stumbleupon this "so, what's next?" feeling quite often.
I sometimes lose my motivation and looking for the ways to overcome this feeling. For the last 2 years, I've tried:
- Working with a business coach/mentor: This was nice and eye-opening. But didn't solve my problem fundamentally.
- Hiring employees: Even though I was able to continue as a solopreneur (and outsource some support stuff here and there) , I hired people thinking that maybe what I need is more like a "businessy" thing instead of a one-man lifestyle business. Now we are a team of 8. It is nice to share joy, excitement and success. But it is quit stupid to deal with payrolls, taxes, off days recording and all kinds of paperwork etc. You also have to keep them happy, need to keep them busy, make some personal one-to-one's.. You need to train them and they can leave after a while (of course) All time wasters in the end of the day.
- Growing the business: As I couldn't start any other businesses or did not want to take any risk, I just grew the existing business. Can it grow more? Yes, it has huge potential. I have tons of business development items in my todo list. Does it make me excited? Not that much. Same stuff, just bigger numbers.
- Taking a long time off: I went on vacation and did not check even a single email for 2 months. I played computer games, went on hotels with my wife, played with kids, read books. We were just talking with the staff everyday or so and that's it. But this did not solve anything either. Same feeling was there when I went back to the business.
What are my options:
- Ignore the feeling: Forget about motivation, passion etc. Be realistic and work your a** off. Focus on sustainability: I told this to myself numereous times but it doesn't help. Human psychology is quite weird. I can push myself for a few days/weeks and same feeling sneaks back.
- Start a new one: Leave the business as-is. It already earns and will continue to do so with a moderate maintenance. Just start something new: This sounds nice for mid 20s but I am close to 40s and I dont have much free time due to busy family life with children etc. I can still work for 40-50 hrs but cannot hustle 80 hrs. But the good thing is, I now have kind of capital to fund myself for new stuff.
- Early retire / travel: I don't want it. I enjoy being productive and prefer working / creating stuff instead of lying on the beach.
- Partner up: Co-partner with your friends and work on their ideas. This can be fun but I prefer not to make any "business" with my close friends. And I am not sure if I will have the motivation to work on someone else's idea. (or maybe we find one together.. I don't know..)
- Or any other ways I cannot think right now.
I don't want to sound like a bighead but it is the problem which keeps coming back as long as I try to ignore it. I really appreciate if one can recommend any reads, similar threads, forums, links etc.
I was more or less in the same place once, minimal hours per week, making great money from a SaaS app. All the bugs were out, the platform was stable, we had our to-do list, etc. and then life stepped in. My tech partner had an illness in the family that froze our to-do list for like 3 years, 2008 came along and the economy crashed, new competitors popped up. Our service wasn't keeping pace so growth slowed and then reversed. We tried starting new things but they didn't catch, We built an amazing app that needed funding for completion and got tied up in a funding round that dragged for 2 years and collapsed. Our VC turned out to be all V and no C.
We even had another huge source of revenue, we provided IT services to a hedge fund. Overnight that suddenly died at the worst possible moment.
All along there were trips and cars and boats and hobbies and spending. The biggest mistake was that we weren't constantly engaged in where the whole internet ecosystem was going.
We are still regrouping from it. My point is simple - you are assuming things can keep going the way they are and you have become fat, dumb, and happy in that perceptual bias. It's a trap. What's hot today didn't exist 10 years ago, what's hot now is on its way out. Stand still and you are going in reverse.
Let me say that again, STAND STILL AND YOU ARE GOING IN REVERSE.
Just because you can't imagine things heading south doesn't mean they won't and don't assume you can stop it anyway. A better mousetrap can pop up tomorrow with funding that can drown you out. You can get sick, you can get hacked, you can get outmaneuvered, there are a ton of failure modes and they eat people in your situation faster than you can react.
It's good that you have "capital to fund new stuff" but treat that like its survival money and either find a way to take your company to the next level, shake off the plateau-itis that you have lulled yourself into, and make it big enough to provide an exit from which you could retire or start something new without the money.
Why without the money? Because if it isn't scrappy, if you think you can throw cash at an untested idea to get you to the next level, then if it fails (more likely than not right?) you are out the time AND the cushion of cash.
Sorry for the "tough love" but you say you don't want to take any risks? Risk got you where you are today. You are "almost in your 40's", I'm in my 50's and cranking out more than 50 hours a week. Most great companies are founded by people in their late 40's. You need to either take what you have to the next level for the sake of keeping up or take it to the next level for the sake of your family, pick your own reason. You also need at least a second income stream for true survivability - I had two and look how that turned out?
You are at that dangerous point in business success where its good enough to take your eye way off the ball. You need a dose of Jeff Bezo's advice - treat every day like its day 1.
I once hit similar situation: I started my company driven by my motivations of doing things my own, don’t have a boss, make more money and work less hours.
Years were pssing, I was working less hours and making more money without a boss or anyone to tell me what to do/take control of my life.
When I got an offer to sell the company I thought: wow, now I’m achieving what I dreamed of, what I thought success was.
When the deal was completed, the opposite happened though: I felt empty. Lost. Didn’t know what to do next. I travelled a lot. Spent a good amoint of money. I tried many different things and failed in all of them.
Long story short: I’m now working as an employee and still looking what to do next. But I kinda of found what makes me fulfilled: help others.
I want to make something related to social entrepreneurship, don’t know what yet.
I wrote about this journey here: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-sold-my-b2b-business-and-achieved-my-dreamed-meaningless-life-9e5bd4ab80
Feel free to reach me out whenever you want to.
Hi Leo. Awesome story and it very much resonates with me! I definitely want to learn from you more.
Hit me up if you want to. Happy to discuss and learn more from you.
My twitter: https://twitter.com/leonagano or email me (profile)
Awesome story. Thanks for sharing!
Having same issue on my end. Earning more money don't motivate.
I see in these pandemic days my bank is taking more benefits out of my money than myself. (Indian bank gives loans to others from the money deposits I make. )
I am a solo enterpruner. After a point earning more money don't make life any better.
Do you have any hobbies that you pursue during your day-to-day life, i.e. in the evening and on the weekend?
As much as everyone. Hobbies are, as the name implies, hobbies. I can’t find my purpose and meaning in a hobby.
For me, a hobby is an activity just like working on a business is an activity. I can get meaning from all of them, especially if they are social activities.
I'm only at the beginning of my journey, and I can't help but say that I am looking at you enviously!! Wow, great job so far man! Right now it seems like I would be so content with just the fact that I'm making enough money in a stable and independent way. But what you wrote really made me stop and pause and think about WHY I'm doing what I'm doing (or planning to do). I guess sometimes our motivations and perspectives change as we move forward in life? I'm really excited to see what more older, experienced people here have to say!
Interesting topic. Following answers...