8
2 Comments

Fail. But don't get used to it.

Read the top 10 posts on IH this fortnight and it's around quitting, giving up etc

And it raises a VERY important conversation.

Mental health, but something even bigger.

The cause of mental health deprecation.

A lot of us here have tried 100s of projects and have seen most of them fail, (I certainly have), but I think the difference that finally made a project work and takes traction was stepping away from the building.

Failing isn't easy, it has a lasting mental effect on you, so yes while you should fail fast and often, you shouldn't get "used" to failing.

This brings me to the "Oxygen mask principle".

Put the mask on yourself before you put it on your business. If you don't have the ability to earn a living and make something, you will make "money" decisions.

Money decisions are emotional decisions, and the majority of emotional decisions are poor decisions.

Learn to take care of your finances before you quit full time, real estate, udemy courses, a full-time job, whatever it may be to ensure you have some funnel of cash coming in.

Or of course, raise funds, but I don't know if that's the "indie hacker" way.

As someone who's done "a lot of wrongs" when I started this nearly 5 years ago, aka:

  • quit job before knowing what to do
  • build build build without an end in sight
  • never focused on growth but features alone
  • made "money" decisions not product decisions

I can tell you, learning how to put yourself first THEN the business is a tough lesson I learned 3 years into the journey, that I'm EXTREMELY glad i did.

This leads me to the conclusion of this post from seeing so many founders succeed & fail:

  • Quit when you're making 70% of what you make at your job
  • Set CLEAR timelines, goals and effort metrics
  • Know when to "strategically" pivot
  • Have a minimum bank balance amount you will NEVER go below
  • FOCUS on sales, longterm growth and marketing from day 1
  • Code as little as possible for v1, no not no code - but use ready made stuff already available
  • Build habits, the goals will automatically be achieved

All the best!

on March 8, 2022
  1. 2

    All excellent points, particularly around focusing on sales/growth/marketing from Day 1.

  2. 1

    Don’t give up