I don't think we try hard enough

Very often I read the same old complaints on indie hackers and twitter along the lines of "I tried hard, it just doesn't work right now", "some people are lucky", "they hit a wave" etc.

Don't get me wrong, I am the same. I have said these same things and had those thoughts.

But I'm on holiday atm and have been reading Jordan Peterson's 12 rules for life. (A book I have been meaning to read for at least 5 years and only just got around to. )

Boy am I glad I finally did.

One of my favourite chapters is "compare yourself to who you were yesterday not who someone else is today".

The core message is essentially are you unfairly comparing yourself to someone who has been committing much more effort, over a much longer time frame, with different experiences than you.

I think this is true of most successful indie hackers and any "over night success" in general.

The old trope of the 10 year over night success is very true.

But more than anything I think if I was really honest with myself (another chapter of the book), my "efforts" have been half-assed.

I can't really compare myself to any of the successful indie hackers we think of because I haven't tried nearly as hard as they did.

I can't speak for anyone else, but before you descend into envy and pessimism I think it's worth considering how hard you really tried. Did you even talk to real human beings that would pay you? Are you just going through the motions, building things, hiding behind the screen, and calling that work?

Deep down we all know if we're avoiding the real work.

Deep down we all know if we could have tried harder.

If you tried your hardest and fell short that is something to draw strength from, there is no shame to be had, you just need to learn more.

But if you know you could have tried harder but didn't and try to convince yourself you did, you're not fooling anyone. You'll become bitter, resentful and might try to claim the game is rigged, impossible or unfair.

All that might be true but it's also irrelevant because all you can control is what game you play and how hard you play it.

This isn't a hustle porn post, I hate that stuff too. I hope this is a bit of a wake up call. And a reminder that this is a game we chose to play, so half-assing it is a bit of an insult to ourselves. Don't pretend to play it and convince yourself you played for real.

I think I've laboured the point enough 😂.

The TLDR is that I have been making all the noises, doing the busy work, and asking myself why it's not working. Deep down I know I wasn't working.

I'm going to try and post here more often with updates on how it's going.

You can also follow me on twitter twitter.com/dankent03

In the meantime I need to jump in the pool 👋