Day 898 - You can't outwork a bad business - https://golifelog.com/posts/you-cant-outwork-a-bad-business-1686989587182
In the latest episode of @indielifepod, @dagorenouf and @jmckinven talk about Dago's burnout and failed business:
"If you don't look at the risks, you're vulnerable. The reason we failed and we got exhausted, and I burned out, is that we were constantly swimming against the fact that it wasn't a good business." – via [@mijustin](https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1669783225928138753)
That resonated so much, it hurt. Because it was so effing true.
Previously, I assumed that hard work will truimph everything. But I've learned a lot in the past 2-3 years since going serious on indie hacking. One of the most painful lessons was exactly what Dago just shared.
At the start, your ability to smell bullshit on your ideas is simply not there yet. You're not good at telling what's a good business versus a bad one. Everything seems like a good business, just because you're a naive first time founder running on pure optimism and idealism.
But soon with a few failed businesses, you realize at the end they weren't such good businesses after all. The economics just didn't make sense. The amount of investment needed—especially of your time, effort and energy—to keep it going, didn't square with the financial payoffs. You spend 10h marketing a product, just to get 1-2 new customers per month. You're pushing the product uphill. ALL. THE. TIME. A lot of effort, very little reward.
Yet you keep going just because "hard work".
Now I've learned. You got to feel like you're being pulled downhill. Not that you no longer have to work hard, or ship bad products. But being pulled downhill is when your effort can't keep up with the demand. The product seems to be running on its own momentum. You can stop marketing for a week, a month, you still get sales (though maybe less). A lot of effort still, but with outsized rewards too, comparatively.
In both scenarios, hard work was constant. But only in one where there's a happy ending.
You can't outwork a bad business.
"If you don't look at the risks, you're vulnerable. The reason we failed and we got exhausted, and I burned out, is that we were constantly swimming against the fact that it wasn't a good business." – via [@mijustin](https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1669783225928138753)
That resonated so much, it hurt. Because it was so effing true.
Previously, I assumed that hard work will truimph everything. But I've learned a lot in the past 2-3 years since going serious on indie hacking. One of the most painful lessons was exactly what Dago just shared.
At the start, your ability to smell bullshit on your ideas is simply not there yet. You're not good at telling what's a good business versus a bad one. Everything seems like a good business, just because you're a naive first time founder running on pure optimism and idealism.
But soon with a few failed businesses, you realize at the end they weren't such good businesses after all. The economics just didn't make sense. The amount of investment needed—especially of your time, effort and energy—to keep it going, didn't square with the financial payoffs. You spend 10h marketing a product, just to get 1-2 new customers per month. You're pushing the product uphill. ALL. THE. TIME. A lot of effort, very little reward.
Yet you keep going just because "hard work".
Now I've learned. You got to feel like you're being pulled downhill. Not that you no longer have to work hard, or ship bad products. But being pulled downhill is when your effort can't keep up with the demand. The product seems to be running on its own momentum. You can stop marketing for a week, a month, you still get sales (though maybe less). A lot of effort still, but with outsized rewards too, comparatively.
In both scenarios, hard work was constant. But only in one where there's a happy ending.
You can't outwork a bad business.