Day 694 - Small bets are great for mental health - https://golifelog.com/posts/small-bets-are-great-for-mental-health-1669333310840
If something is a small enough bet that you won't lose sleep over if it fails, that's actually great for your mental health as a founder or creator. Just heard this from [Arvid's podcast episode with Daniel Vassallo](https://twitter.com/arvidkahl/status/1595866963716120577).
More needs to know this.
I think there's too much hero worship around the founder who goes all in on one big bet and succeeds. Because the road to that hero's success is littered with 100s or 1000s more founders who didn't succeed from going all in that you never heard about. And these 1000s of founders likely got super stressed, lived with anxiety, and finally ran out of cash, burned out, got depressed for a while.
Is that worth it? No matter the personal growth opportunities, I doubt it's *that* worth it.
Cue small bets.
Just small enough in scope, effort, resources, time and emotions invested that you wouldn't flinch if it tanked. Make something minimum and viable, with a feature set (or just a single feature) that solves the most painful task for your user. Cap your effort by working in a calm and focused way, not stressed out. Pay for a domain, get free or cheap hosting, or run it on a free trial plan to contain costs and not overspend before it's even validated. Timebox your work, eat and drink well, have some downtime, not burning through the nights. Lower or have zero expectations that it will work to not lose sleep over it. Then rinse and repeat to make more small bets to up your chances that something will succeed.
There.
A formula for a portfolio of small bets that's great for mental health.
A saner, calmer, healthier way to create and make a living on the internet.
More needs to know this.
I think there's too much hero worship around the founder who goes all in on one big bet and succeeds. Because the road to that hero's success is littered with 100s or 1000s more founders who didn't succeed from going all in that you never heard about. And these 1000s of founders likely got super stressed, lived with anxiety, and finally ran out of cash, burned out, got depressed for a while.
Is that worth it? No matter the personal growth opportunities, I doubt it's *that* worth it.
Cue small bets.
Just small enough in scope, effort, resources, time and emotions invested that you wouldn't flinch if it tanked. Make something minimum and viable, with a feature set (or just a single feature) that solves the most painful task for your user. Cap your effort by working in a calm and focused way, not stressed out. Pay for a domain, get free or cheap hosting, or run it on a free trial plan to contain costs and not overspend before it's even validated. Timebox your work, eat and drink well, have some downtime, not burning through the nights. Lower or have zero expectations that it will work to not lose sleep over it. Then rinse and repeat to make more small bets to up your chances that something will succeed.
There.
A formula for a portfolio of small bets that's great for mental health.
A saner, calmer, healthier way to create and make a living on the internet.