I am done. I give up • Hacker News Board

Re: I am done. I give up

#901

Post by botswana99 » Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 1:27 AM UTC

tayolo12345 wrote: post #887

botswana99 wrote: post #720

I am so sorry you feel bad. Want some advice from an older engineer turned entrepreneur? Be proud of what you have done. Not many people take risks in life. You did. Being the 'man in the arena' is enough. I read this quote from Teddy Roosevelt often: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to…

Thank you for this, this lifted me up. I'm going through something similar to the OP, I haven't given up yet and don't really consider it either. But, it's really hard. My mental health certainly took a hit and I'm full of anxiety as my savings are not enough to cover the upcoming bills and couldn't find a contracting gig so far to support the cashflow. I've experienced severe panic attacks and bouts of depression. I…

I have had anxiety/depression too my whole life. Took me years to understand it and figure out a path forward. Therapy, meds helped a lot. And it took me decades to get the skill and perspective to start a company. Life is pretty long, if you spend 5-10 years dealing with depression -- you still have a 30 years of work to try new things once you learn to deal with your biology!

Re: I am done. I give up

#902

Post by ineedasername » Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 2:05 AM UTC

JanisErdmanis wrote: post #894

ineedasername wrote: post #529

This seems to be the toxic end result of “hustle porn”. The promise that you “Yes even you!” Can start the next unicorn, or even just bootstrap to ramen profitable & gain the attention of some VC money, maybe find a lucrative graceful exit if your runway runs out. It’s a subtle lie, because it directly or indirectly says “everyone could be…” when in reality it’s “anyone might be…” in the sense of “anyone might be the…

I have always been curious on the mindset christians have regarding sick and poor. Can you recommend any books which supports your take?

“Christians” is too wide a net to ask for a single mindset on any topic. Relevant here is that the US was settled initially in some areas by Puritanical Calvinists, which is a large twig off the branch of Protestant Christianity.

As for my take, a few quick searches about what Puritans thought of the poor will give ample sources for reading.

I don’t have a (remembered) source directly for my own knowledge— it was just part of what I learned throughout a rigorous high school and college curriculum, various sources etc.

I do remember having to read a sermon by a famous Puritanical Protestant: Sinner In the Hands of an Angry God.

It was somewhat of a trend setter in terms of 1700’s fire & brimstone preaching.

Re: I am done. I give up

#903

Post by drewcon » Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 2:13 AM UTC

sanderjd wrote: post #758

blagie wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the right model. The vast majority of successful startups I've seen in my extended circle of friends didn't target other programmers or programmer-like consumers. Most startups try to build another database, web framework, or data service, or whatnot, because that's the problem programmers are familiar with. The next ones are consumer products, assuming consumers look like SFO. The competition is fierce, and…

I think one issue (for those of us who are the kind of people that read this site) is that "entrepreneurship" and "startup" are overloaded terms. Most of the discussion here is about "startups" with huge growth ambitions. But what you're describing here is just "starting a business". Both things are "entrepreneurship", but they are extremely different beasts, with different paths to and likelihoods of success. The bi…

Totally disagree. We started a business in a market with huge TAM, venture backed, and have had meaningfully scaled customer and revenue growth…

But that market is seafood supply chain compliance, and I guarantee you no influencer gives a flying fuck about it or even knows it exists. It’s gross, it’s not sexy, the people working in it are absolutely not on this website.

If you get out of the echo chamber, there are loads of places that need help from software, can pay for it, but have no idea how to create it themselves.

Re: I am done. I give up

#904

Post by di-sukharev » Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 2:46 AM UTC

For some reason you are talking about making a start up and not solving a problem and helping people. As I got it — you want the success and not just to help people. Looks like your ideas didn’t drive you really and it was just about being successful entrepreneur. If you love what you do, then it doesn’t matter how many times you fall, it’s just fun. I believe this is the mindset, but please don’t listen to me like I am one of this in the influencers on business making money out of nothing. I’m just a software engineer, I haven’t helped people a lot myself by creating a product that would be making me happy by just creating it and improving. So anyway, I believe that if things don’t drive you — then don’t do them and if you do something that makes you happy — then it’s fun to fail and you don’t feel like giving up if you don’t have upvotes on product hunt, you do this for yourself. Sure, if you don’t have feedback on what you are doing or the feedback is negative it’s less fun and the point to think again, if it really drives you and worth spending more time or or putting this game on pause and go playing another game that is more fun.

Re: I am done. I give up

#905

Post by wingworks » Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 2:58 AM UTC

moooo99 wrote: post #866

wingworks wrote: post #795

Earlier quoted context omitted.

biaheza on YouTube makes a bunch of good videos debunking the git rich quick schemes and showing the other side of the coin. https://www.youtube.com/@biaheza

Is he really though? I did view a bunch of his videos and realized the "Dropshipping course" for 294$. I obviously haven't watched the course, but dropshipping is basically one of the most popular "get rich quick schemes" on YouTube aside from daytrading.

I think he does talk about the difficulties in starting/running a drop shipping store in some of his vids. But I do agree, it add any cred that he's still trying to sell a "dropshipping course". I definitely wouldn't recommend anyone start drophipping, be it following his course or any other.

Re: I am done. I give up

#906

Post by fakedang » Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 3:38 AM UTC

fakedang wrote: post #348

quickthrower2 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am interested in why it is the Firebase problem, or what that means?

Firebase has a ton of users, but most of the users seem to be independent devs and hobbyists, with a small number of large clients. It's possible Firebase tends to attract non-hardcore users because of its superb UI/UX, which makes it extremely accessible for beginner devs and hobbyist programmers. But apart from a few features (which don't generate revenue, like Auth and Cloud Functions), Firebase has a hard time ge…

Edit:- I meant Cloud Messaging, not cloud functions. Brainfart moment.

Re: I am done. I give up

#907

Post by noduerme » Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 4:45 AM UTC

moneywoes wrote: post #678

noduerme wrote: post #161

Just want to chime in as someone who lived as a "digital nomad" overseas for about a decade in the early 2000s before that was a fad - and never touted it: the influencers ruined it. Along with all the people trying to do the same thing. The whole point was to get away from the world of high school type popularity bullshit and go experience the world and other cultures long term, on their own terms. That's exactly th…

How did you check or determine who would be successful? These are retail SMBs?

My criteria were all based on the ways the business owners behaved in initial consultations. I'd break them down as follows:

- Do they have a clear roadmap for the custom software and/or website, with reasonable expectations as to features and price, performance and value for their business?

- Can they communicate their business logic in a way that I can translate into software that will help their productivity, and shows they understand the potential limitations or even drawbacks to automating existing manual processes?

- Do they pay on time? (I always begin by billing hourly).

- Are they personable and involved with the employees and the business on a day to day basis?

- Do they have a roadmap for growth that they're willing to share for the sake of future-proofing the systems I'll be engineering for them?

Almost all the work that falls into my net starts with web deaign. And I hate doing web design, so my initial inclination is to set a very high price and try to refer them to companies that can assemble a template store or a turn-key solution. My go-to response to new clients is that I'm too busy but I'm happy to look at their current stack and give them my 2p of advice for free. 90% I will not take as clients. There had to be something ineffable beyond the above requirements.

That said, I'm able to turn down work because I've been established long enough and have enough retainers to not need new clients. In earlier days I lowered my standards when I needed money. But I eventually fired a lot of clients who didn't meet the above criteria.

As to how I got the business in the first place, it's always been word of mouth. Additionally, I get calls out of the blue every couple months from people who've seen work I've done - I usually sign websites somewhere in the fine print.

To your question, yes, this is mostly retail and service stuff. One current client is a small law firm. A couple are food industry - a sushi manufacturer for markets, a local ice cream truck that turned into a national brand. One little shop in the pet industry that became a regional name.

Basically I just became the person that people who've worked with recommended to others because I was serious, forthright about what to expect, and diligent. And none of that was what I wanted to do with my life. That just pays the bills, and I'm happy it gives me the time to work on my own crazy projects.

Re: I am done. I give up

#908

Post by unforeseen9991 » Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 5:26 AM UTC

neop1x wrote: post #731

rapind wrote: post #704

> It's also the constant stream of digital nomad influencers on Twitter who sell extremely distorted, rosy, and often times false dreams to indie entrepreneurs like myself. They make it seem like building a successful startup is easy and anyone can do it with the right mindset and a few key tips. This is just startup porn. It’s the same in any category (make money flipping houses!, crypto!, etc.) As a rule of thumb,…

This also applies to other fields. People also believe that it is simple to make money through day trading. There are many tiktok influencers and youtubers who portray themselves as millionaires, trading on a beach while digital nomading and giving nonsense advice. Yes, it is possible to make money day trading, but it takes a significant amount of learning, practice, patience, time, and discipline, and even then, the…

I've been working on day trading now for just over 5 years. I even took a sabbatical for 1.5 years to fully dedicate myself to it. Still struggling to be consistently profitable. I figure it's going to take me another few years to have be in the place where I feel I can give up my other career entirely. Easily the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.

Definitely right, 99% of influencers about day trading are full of shit

Re: I am done. I give up

#909

Post by johdesilentio » Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 5:40 AM UTC

What do people think of Alex Hormozi in this regard?

Re: I am done. I give up

#910

Post by johdesilentio » Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 5:40 AM UTC

moooo99 wrote: post #722

rapind wrote: post #704

> It's also the constant stream of digital nomad influencers on Twitter who sell extremely distorted, rosy, and often times false dreams to indie entrepreneurs like myself. They make it seem like building a successful startup is easy and anyone can do it with the right mindset and a few key tips. This is just startup porn. It’s the same in any category (make money flipping houses!, crypto!, etc.) As a rule of thumb,…

> This is just startup porn. It’s the same in any category (make money flipping houses!, crypto!, etc.) As a rule of thumb, assume 99% of influencers are full of shit. Stay off instagram. This 100x! Many of the big influencers in these indie/startup/productivity niches seem to earn a lot of money at first sight. If you look deeper, a lot of these influencer seem to be making a lot of money from courses they are selli…

What do people think of Alex Hormozi in this regard?