Who's on the struggle bus? [February]
We've all been there: progress is elusive, you're banging your head against the wall trying to figure out a mysterious bug, and you accidentally spilled your entire cup of coffee onto your white rug as you attempted to navigate into your home office with a plate in one hand and a cup in the other. Sometimes, things just don't go your way.
But you're not alone! We’re all in the weeds from time to time — it’s just part of being an indie hacker. So let’s normalize it.
Comment if you hit a roadblock, threw in the towel, screwed the pooch, or generally shat the bed recently. Let us know what happened and what you did about it.
Welcome to the struggle bus! 😱
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I am on the struggle bus (I seem to keep getting on it quite often).
I have no motivation left for the startup I’ve been working on for the last few years. It’s had a bit of success. It’s in a good market so if I doubled down I could at least make it a good lifestyle business if not more.
But I’m utterly bored of it.
I’ve been thinking of moving on and doing something else. But nothing else seems interesting either.
When I work on a specific task, I can get into it and do a good job. But I lack a high level meaning or purpose or goal.
This is only the case with my work. My personal life is fine. I enjoy everything else.
But work is such a huge part of my identity that I find it very hard to deal with not doing well.
I could easily get a job but I hate working for other people.
I don’t know if anyone can give me any useful advice (I’ve read and listened to everything). But I felt like venting.
What does seem interesting to you right now, if not work?
No advice. Sometimes it's good to vent. 👍
We had to delay our launch a week because there were just too many things to do :(
I already felt like we had spent too much time in the weeds, so it was demoralizing to wait another week, honestly.
But we're launching tonight, and I'm extremely thankful to have pushed through. It's a tiny little example, but if you're struggling, reach out to your friends, find your motivation, and keep moving forward. Play the long game <3
Having friends to reach out to is a real blessing!
I'm on the struggle bus... Sitting in the back somewhere. 😂 Lots of stuff going on in my life, trying to stay calm and focused, not doing a perfect job... But I'm just going to keep trying!
I totally agree with the fact that indie makers have to normalize the bad days because there are so many that if you don't accept them it will be impossible XD One thing that helped me overcome the harder days is being part of the WBE Space, is kind of a virtual coworking space for entrepreneurs and we all support each other in our projects.
We are working on a major upgrade/migration of our platform. And instead of the originally planned 4 weeks, it's now taken 8+ weeks already. We don't want to rush it, fearing that this will bite us later (e.g. lack of test coverage), but, boy is it a tough fight to get this thing out the door.
What’s irking me today is the whole “keep going” vibe that you’re supposed to hold onto as a solo entrepreneur. Getting initial users for my book service has been such a struggle. Some days, it is so exhausting to keep working on something without any indication that it is going right.
What makes it worse is quitting is not even an option because you literally have everything on the line and you’re only one bad day away from having to move back home.