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14 Comments

I have to stop reading IH

Hi Everyone!

I'm a fullstack freelance dev and wannabe entrepreneur.

I'm always getting excited about a new idea, starting to build then suddenly stop building for whatever reasons... Spending hours a day thinking about new ideas, reading IH, watching producthunt, watch other "hackers" lead their lives to success and it takes me deeper and deeper into my own failure.

It took me several years to realise that I'm not able to make a product on my own, not right now, and it's not because I don't have the skills or knowledge.

I don't have the right commitment and stable foundations.

Who wants to give his money to someone who can’t even manage his own life?

I have to first build myself up to be ready to this journey, and it does not consist of reading IH and daydreaming all day.

It takes to learn hard work, commitment, not giving up, work-life balance, healthy life. These are the foundations on which I want to build my life and business.

I have to start at page 1 and not to scroll to the end of the book.

Wish me a lot of success in this and I hope to be here again in a few years

  1. 7

    IH can give you some inspiration, some ideas, useful tips. But all the action is with you.

    90% is done outside the IH and ends up being shown only 10% (or less).

    Work on building your product infinitely, always trying to adjust your route and then share with us a little of the knowledge you had.

    I spend 10-15 minutes at IH to learn (like now), but the rest of the day is on my project.

    As Steve Jobs said, it is difficult to connect the dots looking back, so it is important that you trust that the dots will connect in the future.

    Focus on your project. Good luck.

  2. 5

    You need to find a goal ambitious enough te be worth struggling for, but still in a range of possibility. Resigning from even trying will not make you happier.

    Find something that is meaningful for you. If the goal is meaningful, the struggle and pain are also meaningful.

    Work-life balance is a cheasy phrase. When you have something you believe in, you work is your life, and you stay happy and motivated.

  3. 4

    I feel this, been listening to a lot of entrepreneur-related podcasts for years and reading IH... still have yet to make a service that makes money one time or monthly. Thankfully I'm employed ha. Technically I'm at the stage of "I can make anything" but what to make... on the other hand operating in a vacuum isn't good either.

    More on the topic at hand of living your own life vs. observing others. That's been tough too especially nowadays gotta show off your stuff/ego boost. I do that all the time and then lose motivation/interest particularly when projects aren't even finished yet. I now try to complete things before sharing them for personal projects anyway, the landing page/interest test for a product is different.

    At least I've been in touch with a friend that runs his own business and asks me about how to make some stuff/gives me ideas what I could make/practice developing a product.

    Good luck

    1. 2

      I was in that position for a while, and I got through it by making baby steps. I drew out a really small idea -- clearly too small to ever take to market. However, I saw a sliver of opportunity that I've been expanding on for a while. Baby Steps!

      1. 1

        Nice good luck with it! It is a great feeling to pursue something.

    2. 2

      What do you do to have fun? Do you have any hobby? If you don't, find some and have fun. Then you will notice issues on the hobby that you may solve with tech.

      Then build the product, which you will use on your hobby and market it for others. This is the best path, build something that solves a problem you have, use it on a daily/weekly basis, be part of a community to promote your product.

      1. 1

        As an example, I wanted to practice skydiving. Going to the training/jumping place, I met dozens of skydivers with hundreds of jumps. Most of them like to do formations on free fall http://www.skydiveelsinore.com/formation-skydiving/ but free fall lasts 90 seconds, the pain point they have is how to coordinate beforehand the size of the formation and where each participant will be.

        Someone built an app for that, quite probably this person knows the pain point because they're part of the community and they know the places (associations, sites, jump places) to promote it https://www.skydivemag.com/new/skydive-designer/

        1. 1

          Fact: I don't have any apps or things I built that could accept money today. Maybe that's a step one, monetize something, anything! A blank page... kidding aside. That was a concern of mine regarding "Do I need an LLC" etc... but recently saw people mentioning stuff like Paddle so I guess I'll just use that for now despite how odd it may seem from a workflow perspective.

          Then you will notice issues on the hobby that you may solve with tech.

          Yeah I have seen this suggested, aside from writing code as a hobby/building stuff, hardware is the other hobby and that is a tougher market to get into I think. I mean with companies like PCBWay to build boards easier it is not so hard but still, harder than software I think. Still I do notice some things although they are cliche you know, "there's an app for that" like Evernote.

          the pain point they have is how to coordinate beforehand the size of the formation and where each participant will be.

          What about a whiteboard and a marker? I skydived once tandem it was scary at first(slow plane).

          Yeah that app is nice, don't have to bother drawing. It also seems like such a niche case but if it gets money then it's a great product. Also yeah nice to see a traffic bump from that site I bet.

          I'm working on it, it's not a hopeless case but I do recognize that I'm not really a business guy because I'd rather do stuff for people for free and that doesn't translate to money.

  4. 2

    Stay with it! I can tell you really want it, I feel that motivation is key to pushing forward. I have similar struggles myself, so I can totally relate to many of your words. Closest thing to advice I can give is to just try to start small and gradually build up from there. Then after a bit look back and enjoy how much you have accomplished!

    Wish you the best of luck.

    1. 1

      I think there is 2 type of people:
      The one who can develop on they own and the other who need others to keep the motivation, flow, confidence... Maybe we need a platform where we can give this helping hand to each other?

  5. 2

    Good luck with it @illesaprod.

    I believe in mastering yourself before mastering anything else. That can look different to a lot of people, for me it's sticking to my good daily habits and avoiding my vices. Reading self development books has been a huge help with that.

    It's amazing what you can get done in a short period of time once you give your 100% focus to one thing.

  6. 1

    Note: I sometimes feel like you and spend too much time here and PH;
    I'm nowhere near a real/successful entrepreneur. This is just my opinion.

    A lot of good advices here already.
    I agree that you have to establish a healthy life and lifestyle.
    But what I got from your post is: you are already a full stack developer, but now you want to take time (years?) to "perfect" your skills (like frameworks?) and knowledge?

    I tried to do just that, I always told myself: yeah I WILL start a business SOMEDAY, when I have the PERFECT skills.
    But it got me nowhere. Yes I know a lot more than I did, and maybe it was a good thing to learn a few fancy and new frameworks, but right know I think 1 or 2 modern framework (my bet is on Angular or React + Laravel) is more than enough.

    My current approach (which I enjoy MUCH more and I learn faster) is to build, build & build and learn along the way.
    I'm a fan of @levelsio and his work.
    He is a successful entrepreneur and his mindset is basically this: use the tools you know/have and start building. You don't know React but know the basics of html/JS? Cool, start building.

    You will never have "perfect" skills or knowledge IMO.

    This is my opinion, I hope you find it valuable and give you some different perspective.

    1. 1

      Thanks for your reply!
      Maybe you miss understood what I wanted to say. I want to develop my confidence, motivation, to not give up after a few weeks.

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