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After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

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Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#141

Post by croes »

bawolff wrote: post #52
croes wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever thought that his anxieties are the result of his failing business and not how he started? And life is telling nothing. There is no guaranteed way of success. You can have all the abilities and knowledge you need and still fail miserably. Luck is a large part of every success story. Nobody has really unique capabilities.

Not to be harsh, but that seems even worse. If you can't handle failures and set backs, you even more so should not be in the start up business because those things are definitely going to happen, a lot, if you are running any sort of business. Its the same as if you are terrified of heights, being a professional mountain climber is a very bad plan. You either need to get over it somehow quickly or choose a different…

Who says he can't handle failure? There is between processing a situation afterwards and be activly in it. And it seems to be his first time. If he tries a second time, it could be a different outcome.

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#142

Post by musicale »

Causality1 wrote: post #9

Yeah, running a financial endeavor like a software business requires you to be 50% tireless robot and 50% narcissist cheerleader. Most people can't do that.

Moreover it seems like the exception rather than the rule to find a successful businessman who is also a positive and generous person who is great to work with as well as down-to-earth and rational, with a good sense of work-life balance.

To me that sounds like a nice model to aspire to though, and those people would be worth their weight in gold if you could find them.

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#143

Post by edfletcher_t137 »

This may be one of the most off-putting paragraphs ever:

> I made my girlfriend stay home for a year, we didn't do anything, we didn't buy clothes and ate the cheapest food, etc. I feel that I have lost a year of my life.

You made her stay home...

You lost a year of your life...

HFS

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#144

Post by gpsx »

switch11 wrote: post #3

This is a difficult post to respond to Firstly, your issue doesn't seem to be anything other than social anxiety If you have to 'lose sleep' after contacting someone on LinkedIn about your product, then you are just not suited to doing a startup Secondly, there is nothing to feel bad about Vast majority of people are not suited to starting a company or working in a small startup Lots of good jobs in middle and large…

I think it is unfair to say he is not cut out for a startup. If he has trouble doing some of those things, he needs help from someone who is good at those. People in a startup have to wear a lot of hats, but they don't have to wear every hat.

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#145

Post by tarsinge »

switch11 wrote: post #3

This is a difficult post to respond to Firstly, your issue doesn't seem to be anything other than social anxiety If you have to 'lose sleep' after contacting someone on LinkedIn about your product, then you are just not suited to doing a startup Secondly, there is nothing to feel bad about Vast majority of people are not suited to starting a company or working in a small startup Lots of good jobs in middle and large…

I have social anxiety and started a company. Social anxiety is not the root cause. Sales and marketing (entrepreneurship) is indeed at the hearth of a startup, but the difference is I find these activities fun and rewarding, and a huge opportunity to learn and grow as a person.

So much to learn like writing, doing presentations and conducting a sale (B2B), public speaking, crafting a brand, hiring, designing processes, organizing and managing teams, company structure and culture...

I love to code, but it’s a small part. The larger “real life build your company strategy game” is more interesting for me.

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#146

Post by silveroriole »

falcolas wrote: post #126
pizza234 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While the tone may be a bit condescending, what's the shaming? The social anxiety diagnosis seems very realistic to me, and there's no shame in not being suited for starting a company. I am familiar with startup company working, but I'm positively not suited to starting (or being a CEO of) a company, and I don't see any shame in it. To each their own.

> there's no shame in not being suited for starting a company. There is around here (on Hacker News). If you don't run a company, the entrepreneurs around here don't believe you deserve anything more than a "competitive" salary and a job.

Err, what else would you ‘deserve’? A salary and job is indeed what employees get... (I don’t run a company btw)

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#147

Post by tpxl »

tomc1985 wrote: post #43
tpxl wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey. I've been working (with a co-founder) on a side project that's about to pan out for the past 2.5 years. About 1.5 years of that was working after hours, then about 10 months or so of 6 hours at my day job and 2 hours in my company, then just recently I quit my job with about a years worth of savings and am full time in the company. The risk I took, until recently at least, was almost nothing, since I had a job a…

'Working on the side' doesn't work so well for me. I've tried it, and I really struggle to make any progress. I also make art and usually that's where my productive free time goes. And switching off the artistic side is bad for me, mentally. Side projects and art draw from the same pool of mental energy as my day job and they both get the back seat, unfortunately. That's part of why I would really like to make a clea…

You can still do a 6 or 4 hour work-day at your day job, and dedicate the rest of the work-day to your project.

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#148

Post by rorykoehler »

tpxl wrote: post #32
tomc1985 wrote: post #5

I wish there was a better support framework in the US for people who want to quit their jobs and work on ideas. I really, really hate working for other people but the things I would like to work on instead are time-consuming and the core work is not easily farmed out. I'm currently saving up to do just that and its like, "I could buy a house with this money" or "I could go on sabbatical with this money", or "I could…

Hey. I've been working (with a co-founder) on a side project that's about to pan out for the past 2.5 years. About 1.5 years of that was working after hours, then about 10 months or so of 6 hours at my day job and 2 hours in my company, then just recently I quit my job with about a years worth of savings and am full time in the company. The risk I took, until recently at least, was almost nothing, since I had a job a…

Working on the side comes with the opportunity cost risk.

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#150

Post by gscott »

nullsense wrote: post #108
gscott wrote: post #41

I spent 9 years on a groupware crm. Made $5,000 total on it mostly begging for users to make a "donation". Drove myself and my family into the poor house for something people enjoyed using for free but wouldn't pay for... made plenty of mistakes. I thought if I didn't quit on it I wouldn't fail, but looking back it started failing the second I launched it as a generic product... you need a big marketing budget to lau…

How did you stick with that for 9 years? That's a pretty solid effort, but that just sounds soul crushing. I tried and didn't succeed at a product where I spent my savings too. It's just the reality of a lot of startups. It's unsexy, but it's the reality.

I had this crazy idea I would go it alone and that if I would just keep working on it until it was a success regardless of how long it took. I spent 3 years on programming it to get it the way I wanted it, starting development in 2001... I still have it set up and one day I plan to convert the design into Bootstrap and try again but going after niches this time. But at this point I am not stable enough financially to work on it the way I want to just getting it all into Bootstrap would take months.
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