Day 859 - Everything is a side project, except when it's not - https://golifelog.com/posts/everything-is-a-side-project-except-when-its-not-1683634402805
My side projects always seem to end up doing better than my main projects. The ones you least expect to succeed are the ones that actually do. Either this is cruel fate, or it's a deep lesson in there about how expectations can help, or hinder. For me, it hindered, because it was not easy to be emotionally equanimous about my products. Sometimes the deep desire for expression through one's product can help propell it to success. But in my case, when it comes to making something profitable, it hindered more than helped. It blinded me to the real world market realities. So since [late last year](https://twitter.com/jasonleowsg/status/1591430940290535424), my 'hack' was deciding that everything on my portfolio of products is a side project. I dropped Lifelog back then as main project to side project status.
No more main projects.
Everything's a small bet.
But there could be the exception to the rule, as I recently learned from [@jdnoc](https://twitter.com/jasonleowsg/status/1655558175838584833). He talked about how he should have went hard on Closet Tools when it was on the up and how:
> ...Focusing 100% of your effort on one project for a shorter period of time is still a small bet. You're intentionally capitalizing on it to hedge against future failure. Rather than treating your businesses like you're going to work on them forever, treat them like you're going to sell when the timing is right. The serial entrepreneur mindset is still within the small bets framework - "multiple streams of income" just not all at the same time.
I love the nuance there. Timeboxing your effort on a validated opportunity and not treating it like a baby are both very small bet-esque. And if a project's growing like crazy, continuing to treat it like a side project might be hindering its potential.
So there *are* exceptions to the rule, even though I now say no more main projects, even though between focusing on 1 product versus a portfolio of small bets, I always chose the latter. If there comes a time where there's a huge opportunity in front of me amongst my different bets that demonstrably show continuous growth and has the real world market data to prove product-market fit, I should focus on it for a time, instead of holding myself back just because "small bets".
No need to be dogmatic even if we mostly prefer small bets right?
Just do what works, because ultimately the endgame is freedom, not some silly status game of which camp are you in.
No more main projects.
Everything's a small bet.
But there could be the exception to the rule, as I recently learned from [@jdnoc](https://twitter.com/jasonleowsg/status/1655558175838584833). He talked about how he should have went hard on Closet Tools when it was on the up and how:
> ...Focusing 100% of your effort on one project for a shorter period of time is still a small bet. You're intentionally capitalizing on it to hedge against future failure. Rather than treating your businesses like you're going to work on them forever, treat them like you're going to sell when the timing is right. The serial entrepreneur mindset is still within the small bets framework - "multiple streams of income" just not all at the same time.
I love the nuance there. Timeboxing your effort on a validated opportunity and not treating it like a baby are both very small bet-esque. And if a project's growing like crazy, continuing to treat it like a side project might be hindering its potential.
So there *are* exceptions to the rule, even though I now say no more main projects, even though between focusing on 1 product versus a portfolio of small bets, I always chose the latter. If there comes a time where there's a huge opportunity in front of me amongst my different bets that demonstrably show continuous growth and has the real world market data to prove product-market fit, I should focus on it for a time, instead of holding myself back just because "small bets".
No need to be dogmatic even if we mostly prefer small bets right?
Just do what works, because ultimately the endgame is freedom, not some silly status game of which camp are you in.