Ask News.YC: How to re-motivate yourself?

We have been working on a startup idea for almost an year now. The initial days were fantastic, we were totally convinced we had hit upon a brilliant idea, there was vacuum to be filled. We worked crazy hours, got a lot of stuff done. Needless to say we were highly motivated.

But lately, I am personally having trouble motivating myself. I see myself squandering valuable time that I could have utilized. We suddenly seem to have a few competitors and it suddenly appear as though we don't have a unique value proposition.

And I have been pondering over this for some time now. I do realize that the lack of motivation is a sign that things have to be done differently, or something needs to change. We either need to course-correct, change gears, think of a different market, a different approach or just look into ourselves honestly and understand ourselves better.

I was hoping to find some answers to my misgivings through this forum. I have benefited from news.yc in the past and I have no doubt that you guys will help us bounce back.

So here are my questions to sum things up:

1. What do you do when things are not going the way you want them to?

2. When do you know its time to change? (eg: market, process, partners.. etc)

3. When do you know its time to call it quits? (to start working on a different problem)

I would really be thankful if some of you could share your experiences so that all of us benefit.

Thanks!!!

- User testing, often from the clueful. - Feedback and ideas from users. - Hence, an idea of where I should take the project to keep my customers happy and interested. - Motivation, because I'm doing something for me and not just other people. We're social animals, even if we're also hackers ;)

I find that right now (two months after starting the project) I have plenty of enthusiasm and my objectives are perfectly aligned with my users'. If I'm hunting a bug for someone, it's not a case of "why do I have to do this when I could be doing 'real' programming?" I want the bug fixed, he wants the bug fixed, we both benefit (and I've got some free user testing and bug identification into the bargain).

Now, maybe you can't open source your stuff, either because you don't want to, or it doesn't fit your business model, or it's just not that kind of product. But maybe you could try (if you haven't already) finding some early testers who can give you the benefits I'm getting from my users: feedback, ideas and (critically in your case) an indication of whether or not your product is going anywhere. Maybe you can find a small re-alignment you can make which will allow you to reach a tipping point - it's often the small things which do it. Maybe you could get readers here to help you with this..?

Also, I would say (having worked on many programming projects of varying sizes) there is always a point in any project where you think it's not going anywhere, you're discouraged and wondering if you should go on. You have to push through that. I'm doing some client work at the moment which is really dragging me down, I was unhappy with the database structure and the presentation was ordinary. I showed it to the client and they loved it. It was a real boost. So at least I have them on-side, even though the project overall I'd love to complete and move on.

4-6 weeks is generally my max. time for spitting something out, otherwise I get bored and slowly stray away and eventually leave the project/app alone. Like if it's 12, 16, 24, or 3 months etc. to get something out, by that time my attention has been moved elsewhere.

My answers to your questions should definitely not to be considered as advice(except for 2 and 3), but:

1. I make them the way I want, or very close too it. Or I leave.

2. After I get feedback from people other than the ones involved in the development of the product, or after you release for use and there is no/a negative response from your users.

3. Once again, after you release and it doesn't work, try to fix it. Ask your users what they want, can you give it to them? No? Call it quits. Yes? Keep on going!

That is very simple-minded and idealistic. One should look at their product ideas and development objectively to determine if they are building something people will use or not. Simply saying "build it and trust the process" is too faith-based.

What does "things are not going well" mean? It could mean the implementation of an idea doesn't work, the developer can't bring the idea to market, the developed doesn't really want to do it, or the market is telling the developed they don't want to use his/her product. It could mean other things. If any of these conditions are met, then it's time to change or call it quits (hint: quitting a doomed venture is not a failure.)