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5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0

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Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0

#191

What a lot of loud successful people wouldn't like to admit, is that even if you show up and do the work, you have to be very lucky to get traction for anything, regardless of novelty. True for being an employee or a business. For the latter, it helps to be very lucky and opportunistic with timing to begin with.

Maybe with consumer tech, but this isn’t the case with enterprise. Successful companies identify a market need then figure out how to sell it. It’s appealing to say it’s luck from the outside, but the successful playbook is consistent enough that it seems naive to attribute it to luck.

Well, it depends what you mean, but I certainly didn't attribute it to luck. I attributed a certain amount to luck, which is always involved no matter how you spin it.

I know someone who runs a successful enterprise consulting business for example. He's a relentless worker, and has earned it, but he'd be delusional to not admit that there's luck involved at every point in the delivery chain; starting of course with being lucky to never run into any problems on his first few steps into the job world where he developed connections he could later sell to. If you're a relentless worker, you have probably never been given a reason to question the merit of hard work, because it's always paid off for you somehow.

Doesn't even matter whether it's tech related or not. If you're on your way to being a successful mountain climber, you're going to need be lucky to not develop debilitating foot problems.

Back to your example, there's a certain amount of luck involved in finding out about the apparent enterprise playbook in a time and place where you can put it to use, and of course in finding a market. I don't know a thing about enterprise sales or business because my dad conveniently doesn't run one and I was never hired at IBM in the 90s.

Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0

#192
post #60
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think "just stick with it" is a good advice in general and especially not for his projects. He was smart to abandon his minimal time tracker, minimal metronome and jobs website. BTW: he didn't get 5 users for minimal time tracker, he got 5 people who signed up for a mailing list based on screenshots of non-existing product. Even smarter would be to not do such projects in the first place. With jobs websites y…

As Guy Kawasaki once said in Art of the Start : “You want to be high and on the right.” You make something everyone wants and is of great value, and only you can make it. The worst place is making something that 50 others do and is of no value to the customer.

Did he also say that you want to bring in more money than you spend?

Sorry for the snark, but how is this actionable advice? It's just a fortune cookie anecdote of a situation that of course would be profitable.

Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, there seems to be an issue with your contact form on rift walley software, here is what it looks like in mobile Safari: CONTACT US [contact-form-7 id="67" title="Contact form 1"] (

Sigh… I updated the plugin, and it seems to have borked. Thanks. I’ll get on it. I may need to do a fairly significant site upgrade. I’ve been avoiding it.

No problem, I just wanted you to know :-)

Other websites have full lorem ipsum pages or have someones dubious web shop selling crystals running in a subfolder.

(Idea for webmasters: set up a few scheduled search for site:)

Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sigh… I updated the plugin, and it seems to have borked. Thanks. I’ll get on it. I may need to do a fairly significant site upgrade. I’ve been avoiding it.

No problem, I just wanted you to know :-) Other websites have full lorem ipsum pages or have someones dubious web shop selling crystals running in a subfolder. (Idea for webmasters: set up a few scheduled search for site: )

Grr... It wasn't even that. A couple of days ago, the hosting provider had some kind of server bork. I complained, and I guess as they were looking at it, they renamed the plugins directory (fairly common practice).

After they figured out it was their server, they never went back and renamed the directory.

Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No problem, I just wanted you to know :-) Other websites have full lorem ipsum pages or have someones dubious web shop selling crystals running in a subfolder. (Idea for webmasters: set up a few scheduled search for site: )

Grr... It wasn't even that. A couple of days ago, the hosting provider had some kind of server bork. I complained, and I guess as they were looking at it, they renamed the plugins directory (fairly common practice). After they figured out it was their server, they never went back and renamed the directory.

At least by being on HN you got a warning within a couple of days :-)

Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0

#196
post #15

All these have a thing in common: he gave up because they weren’t immediate successes. Some even had traction: 5 users in 3 months isn’t the incredible outlier story you hear time and time again, but it’s 5 people you can talk to, listen to what they want (and why they signed up anyway), then you gear up from there. We’re too conditioned to believe in the stories of immediate success and MVPs making tens of thousands…

This makes me feel better about 0 side projects earning $0 in 20 years: I've come out ahead of people who are "underwater".

Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0

#197
post #15

All these have a thing in common: he gave up because they weren’t immediate successes. Some even had traction: 5 users in 3 months isn’t the incredible outlier story you hear time and time again, but it’s 5 people you can talk to, listen to what they want (and why they signed up anyway), then you gear up from there. We’re too conditioned to believe in the stories of immediate success and MVPs making tens of thousands…

When it comes to the time management app, he did exactly the right thing: created a mailing list, found out there is no market, left it alone.

Generally 'just making an app' does not produce a business, and has not for the past 10 years at least.

Games are a very special business, and there is no science as to what makes a game compelling: flappy bird was created in a weekend and made millions, some million dollar projects make nothing. I think that you have to be very passionate about games and have deep understanding of gameplay to even compete.

Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0

#198
post #38
post #15

All these have a thing in common: he gave up because they weren’t immediate successes. Some even had traction: 5 users in 3 months isn’t the incredible outlier story you hear time and time again, but it’s 5 people you can talk to, listen to what they want (and why they signed up anyway), then you gear up from there. We’re too conditioned to believe in the stories of immediate success and MVPs making tens of thousands…

I don't think "just stick with it" is a good advice in general and especially not for his projects. He was smart to abandon his minimal time tracker, minimal metronome and jobs website. BTW: he didn't get 5 users for minimal time tracker, he got 5 people who signed up for a mailing list based on screenshots of non-existing product. Even smarter would be to not do such projects in the first place. With jobs websites y…

The thing is he might have learnt something if he had continued the project. Maybe he would have learnt something about marketing and market positioning. Or maybe he would have learnt about delivery and server provisioning, even without any commercial merit to his product.

The whole thing reads like he had a vague idea that writing a basic piece of software would allow him to retire, but could only bring himself to make a very limited effort.

The rule is: if you want to get money from it, you have to be prepared to work hard, and on parts of it that you don't find interesting, with no guarantee of success. If you aren't motivated by money and ready to put a lot into it with a high chance of failure, just work on things you enjoy. You will get further and learn more.

In neither case will you get much from it if you just do the minimum and then abandon the project.

'Side projects' have become the new programmer blogs, as something which everyone feels they need to have in order to get a job. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO STUFF LIKE THIS. If you're not excited by it then just don't. Just getting good at your job and enjoying your spare time will get you much further in life than pursuing things which it will be clear to an employer you don't really care about. For every employer which looks for stuff like this, there is another who just wants someone who does a good job and doesn't waste their energy on side hustles.

Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0

#199
post #15

All these have a thing in common: he gave up because they weren’t immediate successes. Some even had traction: 5 users in 3 months isn’t the incredible outlier story you hear time and time again, but it’s 5 people you can talk to, listen to what they want (and why they signed up anyway), then you gear up from there. We’re too conditioned to believe in the stories of immediate success and MVPs making tens of thousands…

Counterpoint: He is trying to compete in sexy, very competitive industries. I launched a landscaping business with a partner four months ago and we already have over $100,000 in revenue.

Re: 5 side projects in 6 years, earning $0

#200
post #14

It's ok to fail sometimes, but if you only fail the only way for you to stop failing is to be lucky. It doesn't seem like a good strategy to me. But yeah if the goal of OP is the guy he quoted at the end "Had a business idea that I think could build in 24 hours and get to $5,000 MRR in 30 days". Keep trying, survivor bias is still alive

There are a ton of ideas that could get someone to $5000 MRR in 30 days; they're just not passive income. For example, if he had started a facilities maintenance company and found one customer, he'd be set!
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