Well, I wasted 2022. The whole year. I’m a failure.

The best part of this journey is that you learned from this and moved on! Keep going, Mick.

Well, you learned something in a year that took me more than 15 years. I kept chasing the shiny object - there were times when I would launch a new website, and in the couple of weeks it took the developer to make it, I'd lose interest and would start planning the next idea.

My latest project has taken off well - already scored a mention on HubSpot - so hoping I stick to this.

Hey Mick, please do thing...

Print the following quote from your post and post it on your forehead backward so you can read it in the mirror everytime you get ready in the morning.

"It turns out you need to start something and actually stick with it to be successful.

You can’t start one thing then talk yourself out of it 2 weeks later when the next shiny idea pops into your head..."

I'm only half-joking :-)

Keep the updates coming!

Hey Mick, thanks for sharing. If you don't mind sharing further, what was your job before? I think there are a lot of opportunities for people to lean into their job in order to create a profitable business. I know this is probably exactly what you don't want to do, but I see that pattern work time and time again - as a matter of fact, it's what I do - not something cool or sexy like business talk stuff - but solving a genuine problem that people are willing to pay for.

Oh another business idea newsletter, cool

Never give up Mick you'll make it. I'm in a similar situation I ended up quitting my construction job back in July to build a SAAS. If there is anything I learned so far from this experience is that trying and failing is only part of the process. Nothing good in life is easy. Keep going!

Good luck with it, but I think you need to focus a bit more on what you're getting out of it.

People aren't just going to give up with email account. They'd want to see what they'll get, what you'll do with their email etc.,...the floating skull is cool, but isn't connected to the website name or what you're doing?

The main question - How are you going to make money?

There's a site like Exploding Topics that collects emails by posting trends > upsells to a Pro version.

Failory is another site that springs to mind. It's huge, but it's not making much money from sponsors.

Hope it works out well for you.

Well i think that i had similar thoughts of what the hell am i doing, i invested with my friend (partners, Co-Founders) a lot of money, time and effort in creating something for past 2 years and we are generating some revenue but very low where we cannot pay ourselves nothing. But every morning i wake up and say today i will do better and focus more on our strengths and how we can bring more customers to support our business.

Mick not sure if this was intentional or not but that was a great piece of copywriting.

Last month I heared a very good advice from a not very good guy : Discipline is more important than motivation, because motivation is not always present. Someone who works everyday regardless of his motivation will always outperform someone who work when he feels like it. I personnaly have the same problem as you did, but I decided to stick wirh my project regardless of my motivation.

Hey Mick! I really enjoyed reading your post. Do you have any advice on organizing ideas and conducting research?

Mick!! Good luck! I've had such a similar feeling about the last year, that we didn't get all that much accomplished. But that time is never wasted! We've spent a lot of time learning and getting to the place we need to be to move forward 😤 It's always a process.

My team and I are dedicated to helping more people accomplish just this kind of thing this year, and almost in the exact same way. We built a Notion-based startup system that breaks down the process you outlined but for service businesses. (I think with just a little stretching we could get it to suit no-code builders too though)

Anyway, seeing your post is really heartening! For sure can't wait to follow along.

PS, "surrender your soul" 😂 love the attitude

It feels like I’ve just had an out of body experience reading this. I can relate so much and really looking forward to the process.

Well that was QUITE the wild ride! Love that you're in the same area as me with your newsletter -- it can be an awesome niche and fun to write about.

As far as your issues with finding ideas that work well for you and feeling like you've wasted time, consider changing your strategy on validating ideas as well. The search for a sustainable business is always hard, but having a good validation strategy can help (and avoiding paying too much to try something out).

I have a hard time finishing projects, too. What worked for me was to stop working full time (I now work 4 days a week) so that I would feel guilty for not working on that free day. Since I did this I managed to develop and deploy my first project ( https://focusdiner.io ), it's still not perfect but at least I deployed it. This simple fact gave me a confidence boost which is huge because confidence is my biggest project killer.

Why does this speak to me on so many levels?

I had a similar 2022 to you and I also came to the same epiphany at the end of the year.

Glad to hear you got through it and found your north star.

I decided this year to do the 6by12 challenge. It's my take on 12 start-ups in 12 months, but instead I do 6.

1 month for building, 1 month for marketing.

This way I get to go deeper into the ideas I have and get some actual feedback from my marketing, rather than pumping out shallow products each month.

Good luck with the newsletter mick!

Good luck! I hope you find your way! 😊😊

Will subscribe

You are not the only one who feels like that. I also worked on a side hustle (Kody Tools) just to simplify things in my day to day work, but then I got so hooked up to the project that the idea of creating 10-15 tools turned into 300+ tools. Now I am exactly on the same boat...I am not able to decide now I should convert 300 to 3000 or just move on with something else.

Thanks for the Brain Juice - I think i need some now!

Well, the best part is that you learned from it and also our advice would be to stick to this particular thing as we know that you are going to become successful in this field.

Good stuff getting out there. Honestly I don't want to get spam sent to my inbox, not saying yours is, just the only writing piece I have to go off is this post, do you have a blog with other pieces I can read?

Good luck! I hope you find your way!

Great writing. Great analysis. Great perception. You're not a failure, since you've taken action based on your perception, and the writing and analysis and perception should propel you to success. I'm rooting for your success going forwards.

Go crush it in 2023!

Just subscribed, aka surrendered my soul haha

Way to go, if anything, in 2022, you made errors of action and not errors of inaction. Big difference. Way to go!

The copy is beautiful on brain juice; you have my soul!

If you need someone to interview about building productized agencies or all things video marketing, I'd be honored to help. :)

Keep going!

Hi Mick,

This is beautiful Storytelling.

However, all the ideas executed might have been leading you here all along.

Cheers

+1 plus subscribed to your site!
Can't wait to hear your sharing, as I've just started my own business this year, keep sharing & good luck!

Hey Mick,

Thanks for sharing your story. It kinda resonated with mine, since I faced the same (what I considered as) obstacles.

You can just tell me if I'm wrong. But I feel you and me have the same passion for "half-solutions". Personally, I don't know why, but entrepreneurially speaking, I tend to avoid following through.

What makes me think that? That line:

Jumping from AI to Trading Cards to a 24/7 Lofi Channel (like the world needs another one of those).. I just couldn’t seem to make anything work.

For example, I'd always jump into ideas such as:

• Product recommendation websites;
• Content aggregation websites;
• Newsletters;
• Small investments businesses

As a matter of fact, I think that my main issue is also that I want to avoid contact with customers. Not that I fear it, but I tend to believe that having to deal with people might be a waste of time. But I digress...

What I want to say is that, as other IHers have underlined in the comment section, you might want to find a problem, not an idea. I had the same problem as you have with ideas; I always felt that the ideas I was listing in my Airtable were good ideas, but not for me. Ideas are actually vague. They are often not validated, and it feels like you're starting from far behind. As I said, I had (and maybe still have) the same problem as you. Fortunately, after years of struggle, I recently have had the opportunity to discover a problem to solve (or at least a strong desire for a product). I'm only earning little money for now, but I hope it would start to earn me a salary soon enough!

So good luck to you!

Hi Mick, thanks for your really candid sharing. As many others have commented, there are many of us out here who relate to your experiences. However, turning your perceived bug of "not seeing things through" into an entire newsletter is such a cool pivot and, I assume, took a lot of self reflection, so kudos on that. You have inspired me to continue my own JFDI journey and I wish you all the best for Brain Juice!

I don't think "I'm a failure" is the right phrase here.

Sure, some of your projects didn't work out, but you "learned and grew" from them.

You now have more domain knowledge than you did a year ago - hopefully some actionable takeaways you can carry forward. That in itself is an achievement, yes?

Can totally relate...
Instead of coding or marketing all day during precious hours on weekends, I would browse around and contemplate new ideas, because I'm not confident with the current ones...

I think your problem is looking for "ideas" instead of "problems".

Change your mind. Stop looking for a "great idea" and start watching carefully other's problems.

Once you find out a problem then yes, stick to it so you make a business solving that problem.

Your experience is similar to mine. When you go to work, you think you can do it yourself, but it turns out that it's not that easy to do it yourself. The money you have saved from working for five or six years was spent in less than a year. This is the time to continue, or to find a place to work?

It's good you started.
But...
It's like kicking the can down the road.

The can is an elusive problem/idea/entrepreneur mix.

You postpone the inevitable of figuring out your place, value proposition, and niche in this dynamic, highly complex marketplace for internet businesses.

Biz ideas and trends projects are popping out left and right, Exploding Topics, My First Million (that is a podcast), Elaine Zelby's 3 Things... They make more sense for people running VCs, PE, and angel investors, but they can be a death trap for rookies. Sorry.

What did you try with trading cards?

Just signed up (surrendered my soul) - look forward to it :)

You are not wasting time if you are learning something and we cannot be productive all the time. Good luck.

I really relate to your wanting to conquer the world intentions.

Here's a little phrase that I just read the other day, and suits very well both of us:

"Start small, act now".

To a great 2023!

The good news about the positive feedback comes with a word of caution: use caution when experiencing the dopamine rush that comes with positive feedback. Of course, it's fantastic, but what you truly need right away is money. The only thing that matters is that you monetize as soon as possible.
https://carwooow.com/

That's great that you learned all those lessons, but was grit the only thing holding your ideas back? Just judging by this post you've tried to bootstrap into some very competitive (or difficult to monetize) domains.

Creating a newsletter is often something people have as a side project, are you planning on working on this full time? Extremely few can (or want to) monetize them and those who do often have significant following that they've accumulated for years. Not only do you have to be the very best newsletter in your target domain, you also have to monetize it and still be the best newsletter for your users to read. What do you think are the levers that will take you there?

Felt the same when 2022 started. But here I am. All okay and positive :)

This is amazing, Mick!!! Great way to publicly explore all your ideas :)

As IT is progressing, Ones should start his own website in 2023 for a bright future. I already developed various website but my first website which inspired me alot is:https://k2liquidspray.se/product-category/k2-spice-spray/

Best thing is you keep learning in whole year. I also did the same but build just one site https://bdsmquiz.co

the same happen last
I keep building project and jump from one to another when another projects popup.
the whole year ,I didn't deploy anything.
it is miserable. I have so many ideas.
this year I focused on lauching each idea on each month for the two months straight in top of my full time job.
I hope you have better focus this year .
good luck

The same has happened to me. I tried to launch a business, but after a while nothing happens, no clients, no sales. I took the idea from another guy who told everyone his idea was a success. Likewise, I replicated it, but it doesn't work. I'd just realized, I lacked of self-motivation or self-push, you have to stick to your idea til it gets what you want, I think.

Good job

I graduate in 2022;
All my friends from my same major in school found a "decent job" but i did not;
I started my own business as well and went here and there to validate the products.

And in the beginning of 2023, decided to pivot and all efforts , "waster".

?

No! I dont think so. Without the time that look "wasted", we cannot decide the exact direction next time when we need to make a decision.

Let's stay strong as founders. :) Together.

The cost to run a backup generator can vary widely depending on the size of the generator, the type of fuel it uses, and how often it's used.
Backup Generator service buy online on this link https://pittsburghgeneratorservice.com

A small portable generator that runs on gasoline might consume about 0.25 gallons of fuel per hour of use, and at current US average fuel cost of around 2.5$/gallon, would cost about $0.62 per hour to operate.

I have not wasted 2022. I have developed many website, https://vaporizerspot.com/ is one of them. Now it is time to expect something better from our past year's Struggle.

Me too. having extreme difficulty getting people to use https://obeatow.com along with my other SaaS products. Gotten lots of negative feedback over the years about my site and each time I do updates more issues appear.

I'm starting to wonder if its something with my user experience as I have over 100 signups, zero users, no money from my "business".

At this point, I just threw together an AI product found at https://coadfiller.biz and connected it to Open AIs API. I thought the best I could do was make an AI tool with all this new AI stuff appearing out of know where.

Don't say that! Actually, you did not waste 2022, you learned so many lessons on how to start and grow a startup successfully.

Use Memos a kinda Twitter, note-taking app but it is a self-hosted solution. Leave an audio note for each.

I have added myself to your business idea's newsletter.

I truly understand your feelings.. always remember that you CAN do it if you just DO it

we didnt need to see a post about it either

We have a lot of common - I refer to it as "business idea ADD". Too many exciting things to chase after not enough time.

Props to you for figuring out a way to spin that to your advantage. I signed up for the newsletter - I'm excited to give it a read!

Never give up is the moral of every story. Keep at it you'll reach somewhere. I just love the title "BrainJuice". Someone created a page like this : https://www.halfbakedbusinessideas.com/ , it would be really interesting if you can run polls on what people think as a great idea.

Heya! Thanks for sharing! Is there a codebase for brain juice? I'd like to see it!

So like trends.vc. He is making boatload of money from it. You can too. Subscribed :)

Hey Mick, nice storytelling. I will sign up because of that.

Hi Mick, I think many people are in the category "always coming up with ideas, but don't consistently execute". This is why I always say that an idea by itself has no value, what matters is the idea+execution combination. Sometimes, personality wise, you need one person to be the creative "idea" person, and another person to be the "dull" executor. Sometimes you get both skills in one person. Anyway, I'm building an app that matches ideas with people who can execute on them. If you're interested, please feel free to sign up to get free app membership when we launch. https://www.wulfpackprojects.com/. I would say that the projects posted on this app could also be a great feed for your newsletter, and that you could also post your newsletter on there as well as a project.

I can definitely relate to your story. Last year I did pretty much the same thing for 7 months and didn't get the results I wanted. And then I realised that the mindset is everything. And as long as I have the same mindset, I'll keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

From the end of last year, I started investing myself by attending to training courses on brain transformation, money mindset, sales, investments, public speaking and so on. But these are in person trainings with a mentorship program, where you work closely with the people who already has achieved what you want to achieve. I already purchased $10K worth of trainings so far in the last few months and I benefited from them a lot within a short amount of time.

So I'd suggest you to go deeper and find out what actually blocks you in terms of your relationship with yourself, money, business. Focus on yourself first and gain high income generating skills. And tbh, coding alone is not one of them.

Thanks for sharing! We often don't see the difficulties of even getting started as a founder. I've had to deal with shiny object syndrome before as well ("hmmm, is my business in a market that's too oversaturated? Should I just do something else"), and I find the best way to deal with it is to engage deeply with an idea first to determine market need and scope/scaling.

Also, some advice on your newsletter, why am I forced to subscribe to see it? The standard on beehiv is to let users read it, and they can subscribe when they want to get notifications for any new posts.

Setting it up behind a sign up wall just causes more friction.

I also notice promoting it on twitter before launch helps. Tweet frequently about building in public and reply to others tweets. See my own twitter

Since they're defunct ideas now, would you mind sharing what you were planning to do with AI and trading cards in 2022?

I'm mainly interested because I'm dabbling in some AI stuff myself at Evoke

It's an AI as a service that hosts AIs for devs building AI apps to get started without building their own cloud infrastructure.

This comment has been voted down. Click to show.