How do you generate enough income to survive?
How I stay motivated as a solo creator
21–30 of 123 posts
Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator
#22How do you generate income - income enough to survive?
- rifd 1/23 after 13 yrs - 25 yrs exp
Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator
#23Hard earned and useful wisdom here, thanks for sharing.
Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator
#24First, I'm easily distracted. But, the real issue in working on something, for myself, that is engaging, and pushing back the "WTH are you wasting time on this for?". It's all very fleeting. It's not like I have some other burning passion to work on instead, some "if you do this you'll make lots of money instead of those toys you make thing". I don't. But, especially being older, it can be a trick at times to perseve…
I have the same problem. I see all these hackers out there making (something like) the millionth travel blog and sticking with it for years and somehow ending up making a decent income off of it. But I'm sitting here wondering if my potentially cool game idea that has never been done before is something that the world really needs, then I quit after about a week because of those thoughts. What drives people?
Would working on it bring you joy? Because the world could certainly use more of that :D
I personally lean on people to help stay motivated. For your example, I would find a game dev meet up or some discord community, talk shop & share what I'm working on on a regular basis. Validate or give feedback on the work of others, and get some of my own.
It's a process of constantly pushing back the thoughts and community makes it easier
Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator
#25> I stay active on a Slack community of devs and creators in my country, as well as go to meet-ups and events in interesting communities How does one find these supposed Slack groups and meetups? I live in a major metropolitan area, but the meetups I've been able to find have been underwhelming.
In the absence of any good ones you start one?
Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator
#26I do not approve of the use of the term “creator” here when they may believe they are creating but they are actually working inside a box (machine) or job parameter which inherently is derivative.
As in, I can whistle a song I created on the guitar because I pull it out of thin air - can he do the same with his “creation” as it were?
Stay in your lane.
Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator
#27>Working solo has its difficulties. For one, my income is somewhat tied to my productivity, and my productivity highly correlates to my state of mind. Since going back to being primarily a maker after organizing my days around being a manager[1], and being an avid runner, I've redefined my relationship with "motivation" in a way that can be summed up succinctly by author Brad Stulberg: "You don't need to feel good to…
thanks for this.
Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator
#28I think it’s interesting that the author has the following mindset about non-solo jobs: “You're going to work. The choice has been made. The structure around that work, and the underlying purpose are set by others and you just need to make it happen”.
This is not always the case. For example, I work in a midsized consulting firm at a fairly senior level. While I have a line manager, he’s only there to give me corporate news and policy. He not only doesn’t tell me what to do, he often doesn’t know what I’m doing.
What happens is there are a pool of account executives who I have grown to know over the years. We talk regularly, and if there is something I could work on (pre-sales or a project), we talk and figure if I’m a good fit and have bandwidth. Unless I have almost no work I can be choosy about what to work on. Yes, clients and the account guys can mold my deliverables, but I have a lot of sway in that as well.
This also lets me figure out my own hours, within constraints if engagements of course. Since I have kids in school, this gives me great flexibility to schedule work around family, instead of vice-versus.
So while what the author describes as regular jobs may be common, it is not the only model.
Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator
#29Solo creator/dev/preneur here, too. OP mentioned a Slack channel for creators in his country. I've been looking for a similar channel. I'm in Arizona in the US. Anyone know of any similar channels that I could join?
I'm also interested but I'm not in the US (but American). I've found a few groups where I used to live in the US but they cater to local people.
Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator
#30I do not approve of the use of the term “creator” here when they may believe they are creating but they are actually working inside a box (machine) or job parameter which inherently is derivative. As in, I can whistle a song I created on the guitar because I pull it out of thin air - can he do the same with his “creation” as it were? Stay in your lane.
Let's not gate keep the word "creator". Writing new software is just as much "creating" as whistling a tune, writing a song, drawing a new piece of art, painting a miniature, carving a stone, or anything else. Something exists now that didn't exist before. It has been created.