Jason Leow

https://forum.strapi.io/t/how-does-updating-heroku-18-stack-impact-strapi/22957

If you're an indie solopreneur, just aiming to give a prompt response to your customers is already a killer competitive advantage.

I'm surprised when people are surprised and thank me for replying to their email within a day (usually hours). That also shows just how bad it is out there. Especially huge companies – funny how the better funded or resourced they are, the worse/slower their support gets. In a crazy world of holding the line for half an hour just to talk to customer support, only to get rerouted to a different department and having to tell your story all over again, it's delightful to get answers quickly.

The bar's really low for basics like these.

That got me thinking: What other basics are the big guys neglecting (where it's an advantage for us indies)? Some ideas from the customer's point of view:

- Having access to the founder/owner. Getting a DM or email from the founder him/herself always feels more special.
- Just being human and building a genuine relationship person to person. People always prefer to buy from people, not cold, faceless corporate entities.
- Giving a feature request and the founder making it within a day.
- Giving feedback/suggestions and someone contacting you immediately to find out more.
- Following someone's building in public journey and supporting his/her cause.
- The founder being helpful and giving to you (beyond the scope of the product) without trying to sell anything.

*What other basics of a great customer experience or running a business did I miss?*

0 ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬜️ 100%

Thinking about doing things my way got me thinking all the way back to my very first business.

It was 2011.

I just left my last job in late 2010. It was a fulfilling and meaningful job in the social impact sector. I was doing well, on my first managerial position and on a high potential track. But I left anyway, because I wanted to explore the more creative and aesthetic side of my work. The job mined me for my meticulousness and organisational skills, but little on the creative side. I was hungry for more.

So I resigned, and started my very first business.

A presentation design productized service.

Why presentations? It all started with me wanting to get better at public speaking and presentations for work. I attended a Powerpoint design course, was enthralled by being able to design not just work slides but anything on it. It helped me in my job, but it also woke up the creative side of me. I had to do some sort of design work now.

So naturally, I started a service to design presentations. I was good at it, there wasn't many people or companies doing it, and seemed like there's a market gap for it.

Some relics of that business still exists on the internet:

Twitter: [@PopcornPrez ](https://twitter.com/popcornprez)
[Slideshare](https://www.slideshare.net/popcornprez)
[YouTube launch reel](https://youtu.be/qYNmt4jYUlM) and channel
[Vimeo channel](https://vimeo.com/popcornprez)


> Presentations to have popcorn with. Millions of presentations are given each day around the world. Every idea in every presentation, big or small, aims to change the world in its own way. We envision to help you do so, one slide at a time. PopcornPrez is a presentation design business which aims to be the 'Pixar of presentation design'. We believe that design should inform & delight. At PopcornPrez, we design presentation experiences that captures the entertainment and excitement of movie-going with popcorn in-hand. We do this with our services in: 1. Presentation design 2. Web design 3. Design thinking

This was before the time of indie hackers and the creator economy. Social media was just starting. So I started distribution on these channels. It all looked like a great plan, but the presentation design business never took off. I didn't know any companies that needed that service. Nobody knew me. I didn't know how to market, cold call or cold email, or find out where my potential customers were.

Revenue was zero for months.

But one day, a friend asked me if I knew how to set up a website. I did, because I had to learn how to create my very first website using Wordpress, for my presentation design business. So I helped her with it, got paid, and like they all say, the rest is history.

Suddenly I pivoted to a web design business.

To say "pivoted" is giving me too much credit. Because it's more like I was pulled along.

Friends started to know I did web design, and asked me to help them. They told their friends and their friends' friends. It was all through word of mouth. After a while, I managed to earn at least $1k per month or more from it. It worked out fine since I was still single and no kids.

And thinking back, I really did follow my own path.

My web design skills was a by-product of starting the presentation design business, but the by-product ended being the main product. The classic "sell your sawdust" approach. *The presentation design thing didn't work, but look now there's a web design opportunity, so let's just go with it!* I wasn't hung up about sticking to the original product or plan. I didn't have any baggage or preconceived notions of the right or wrong way to do business. No ideals and narratives of indie hacking, solopreneurship. There's not much influencer influences in my life yet.

Just whatever it took to survive, as long as it's still design work.

Marketing wasn't about growth hacks but simply about helping others succeed in their business, doing a darn good job for them, and building trust. So much trust and satisfaction that customers are willing to recommend me to others.

And right now, after a decade being an entrepreneur, I feel like I've come back full circle.

Back to that beginner's mind. Or rather, wanting to get back to that beginner's mind. That purity. That singular openness.

It's hard to be divorced from influences of social media and internet communities these days. But I really do want to go back to those early days where I was just operating off my innate instincts and reflexes.

It's possible. It just takes discernment and mindfulness to filter out the noise.

Back to that quiet fire within.

0 ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬜️⬜️ 100%

What’s your chief regret as a creator/solopreneur?

Mine is listening too much to others who are more successful than me, and not being embodied and trusting of my own instincts and inner wisdom.

Talking about this on Twitter and then one comment from @mattli8020 resonated loads:

“Sometimes I feel like I’m doing it all wrong, but I decided a while back that win or lose, it’s going to be my way.”

And that’s what I will aspire to do from now on.

Win or lose, I’m gonna do it my way and my way only.

F**k the advice from all the success stories from folks whom I look up to too much. I love you guys but I can’t keep being enamoured by what you do and following it like a script.

Maybe I’ll get it wrong more often because of my newfound stubbornness to be my own person and solopreneur.

But at least it’s my own. That independence and freedom is ultimately why I started on this path in the first place. If I wanted to let others decide my work and my fate, I might as well go back to employment.

It’s my way or the wrong way perhaps.

But when I do get it the right way, I know it’s truly mine.

All mine.

I've always been a methodical person. Wait, correction: I'm not naturally a meticulous from young but got conditioned into it by school and work.

But that's how I am now out of force of habit. Doing things in terms of priorities, in a methodical fashion. Even if I don't feel like it. Acting with integrity and duty, in accordance to a righteous code of ethics and values.

[Lawful good](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignment_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)#Alignments), they say.

But struggling with a client report lately forced me to try something else: the chaotic evil approach.

That means no regard for rules, method or sequence. Just doing what feels good and is aligned to my own desires without much regard to how it affects others or other parts of the system. Essentially, not behaving themselves.

So for my work, it looks like this:

- Lawful good: I would always plan to finish A first before going to B. Methodical, meticulous, sequential.
- Chaotic evil: Do whichever I prefer or feel for. Even if piecemeal. As long as there's progress, any bit goes.

Following that chaotic evil energy felt especially powerful when feeling stuck. And it was pretty effective in getting momentum going to eventually work on the sections where I feel more stuck on.

Which made me think: ***What if I did this for my entire indie solopreneur approach?***

That's what my [Opportunistic Trickster identity-based goal](https://golifelog.com/posts/identity-based-goals-1634279678058) is about, isn't it? Traits like:

- Has too much fun, oftentimes at the disapproval of others
- Takes nothing too seriously, even when others are serious
- Keen sense of asymmetric chances to win big
- Acts on asymmetry and actually wins
- Doing random is second nature

Are all about following chaotic evil energy without guilt or shame.

For the longest time, following this particular identity-based goal out of the 4 had been the hardest for me, because being lawful good is ingrained. I also found it imagine ways I can practice that identity. It was hard to make it tactical and tangible. But feels like I'm on to something tangible here.

Chaotic evil > lawful good.

Big lesson in entrepreneurship: NOTHING guarantees success.

Yes there's lots of necessary factors that lead to it. Things like hard work, consistency, enjoying the process, capital, luck, being smart.

But none itself are sufficient.

It's not enough to just work hard.
It's not enough to consistently show up everyday.
It's not enough to enjoy the process or product.
It's not enough to have access to capital.
It's not enough to be lucky.
It's not enough to be smart.

In fact, put them all together in one person or business, and it still doesn't guarantee anything.

Another way to debunk it: For every necessary factor, you can find a success stories where said successful person didn't have it or need it. Lazy people winning the game is the kind of stories we hate to admit exists.

So all we're doing is to up the odds of winning the game. Our real job is just to do things that increase probability of success.

Nothing more. It's all probability.

And anyone who says "Do X and you'll succeed" is just trying to make money off your naivety and hope. We do that to ourselves too, because we *want to* have hope that our efforts and pain mean *something*. It's comforting to deny that reality is a dice game.

Every growth hack, entrepreneur trick, savvy business move - are simply odds increasers.

And we're all gamblers.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

0 ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 100%

Another gem from James Clear:

“What appears to be a rapid shift is often preceded by a gradual process. Our results gradually explode or vanish thanks to the small habits we repeat each day.
What radical change are you slowly marching toward? An incremental explosion or an incremental vanishing?”

I love the last two questions. Great pause for ponder.

What incremental explosion or implosion am I marching towards?

Which habit streaks are serving me towards that future, even though the gradual and incremental progress in the present doesn’t seem like it will?

How will that explosion or implosion look like when it finally comes?

• Sleep biohacking – Restful sleep with daily sleep scores above 90%. Great sleep quality with more than 1.5h of deep sleep and REM sleep per night. Feeling rested and jumping out of bed when I wake. Not needing naps or coffee in the day. Peak productivity.

• Diet – Enjoys eating healthy and wholesome foods. Free from gut issues or metabolic/inflammation ailments. No more dad bod and tummy. Slim, healthy, alert. Peak sense of wellbeing and wellness.

• Indie solopreneurship – Hits $100K per year consistently from my portfolio of products and services. Creating new products just because it’s fun. Connecting and learning from and with others.

• Writing – Clarity. Joy. Gratitude. Creativity. A tool to time hop back and reflect. A bank of words that says who I was, who I’m becoming. A library of work that helps me in my work.

New habit streaks that I really want to add to the list:
• Fitness – Strong, lean, great posture, glowing. Even in my 70s and 80s. Strong but healthy. Able to run 5km anytime, walk all day. Fit AF.

• Money habits – Money is no longer “dirty”. Savvy at using money to grow money. Street smart at investing in stock market, businesses, crypto.

• Family relationship – I’d really love to have a habit streak that gets me to put in incremental effort in terms of relationships for my family - wife, son, parents. No idea how yet but they are so important that I thought I shouldn’t miss out mentioning it!

Onwards!

Saw this line on LinkedIn today:

"And so it's over. So many things that went wrong. But also many things that went right."

Thought that's a great epitaph. Could go on my list of possible contenders for my tombstone for sure.

But the curious follow-up question is: What went right?

If I had to make a future, post-humous list of the things that went right for my life:

- Came back as a human - that's the one in a trillion lottery win already
- Got born in a nice part of the world where I can not just survive but thrive
- Born with limbs and things intact
- Had lovely parents
- Found love
- Got married
- Had a kid
- Loved them all
- Travelled the world
- Found peace
- Died happy

I made up the last three. But if I can achieve them by my deathbed, it'll be sufficient.

Doing such thought experiments always gives such a good overview effect.

What of MRR? Revenue? Going viral? Having huge following? Creating great products that delight people? Earning a million dollars? How about a billion dollars? What of all these things and goals you want in your career and life?

Yeah they're good. *Nice to have.* But not fundamentally important. Not mission-critical. None that can be equal to anything on my list.

So many things that could go wrong, had went wrong.

But also many things that could go right, ended up right, or better. And more to come.

https://twitter.com/jasonleowsg/status/1579835465779118082

Chanced on a good question from [@SimonHoiberg](https://twitter.com/SimonHoiberg/status/1578386243381071878) from the Twitterverse:

"If someone gave you $500K to quit your job and build a SaaS Product... What would you build?"

Most people will say "I'll use it to build X, my dream product." Basically, they'll choose to ***spend*** it. Looking at success rates of startups, 90% will end up draining the $500K pot dry from trying and failing.

I have a better answer.

I'll ***invest*** it. All of it. And use the returns on investment to fund my runway to experiment and build a portfolio of bets, including SaaS products.

Say I invest it in S&P500. Historically over decades, the returns are at least (conservatively) 10%.

10% of $500,000 = $50,000

That's $50K a year. While not necessarily enough to feed me and my fam, it can already cover a major part of it. I can top up the rest with gigs. I can imagine $50K to be more than enough for an indie solopreneur who's single, living as a digital nomad in Bali for example.

And living off that, you'll have almost infinite runway to keep trying, even if you fail.

Spending it on a ***single*** (SaaS) bet is actually a worse-off decision. Because you don't know if that's the one bet that will work. You might need many more tries on the slot machine called the market. But you went all in on that one bet with a 90% probability of failure.

Better to use it to fund all your future bets, and you stay in the game.

Only when you survive do you have a chance at thriving.

Entrepreneurs should be as good investors as they are at business, don't you think?