My mind is exploding with Ideas, while my convenient slowlane job holding me back

[GilKa]

Hi everyone, I’m happy to join this forum and to share my story.

I’m a software developer from Israel, Working at a “unicorn” startup, married + 2.
I have been dreaming and thinking of entrepreneurship since I was in highschool, But bad choices, lack of self confidence, inconsistency and fear from failure brought me to what i’m today, A slowlane software developer with a “good paying job”, but poor with time, in a constant search for happiness and passion.

I stumbled upon “The millionaire fastlane ” book while I was searching for a solution to set myself and my family free from this depressing, life sucking, energy draining rat race. The thought that time is the most valuable asset and that the lifestyle our society dictates consumes most of it was sitting for a while at the back of my mind, but I never addressed it with the respect it deserves. Once I started to read the book I just felt like MJ opened the door to my unconscious thoughts and formulated them into clear, obvious and structured conclusions.

Couple of years ago I was already trying to start a business with 2 business partners and it went wrong. I always tried to create a system without even knowing it, unconsciously I always knew that we should work on a process to decouple time from effort and unlock scale. But one of the partners who was responsible for sales and marketing was a very dominant one, and apparently his plan was to make me and the other partner as the system. He was selling our time cheaply, convincing us we needed to show some cash flow, and It was too late when we found ourselves with an ineffective process, stalling and struggling to fulfil customers' needs. Without insufficient return for our time we couldn't set ourselves free for the real work, like improving and creating the business process and systems. We were trapped in an endless cycle and I was drained and decided to leave. This bad experience left me with a thought that business is not for me, So I found a convenient slowlane job and moved on.

Years after I left the business I still have the passion to own one, I feel like my life is slipping away. I have so many ideas, so many things I want to do and try, But with a wife, kids and a job, I have only a limited amount of time to try and pursue these dreams. With a drained battery I'm pushing myself every evening and weekend trying to be committed but it feels not enough. I need more time and the book just made it more clear to me, A drastic change seems to be inevitable.

I hope to find support and maybe to give some advice in this forum. My software skills are at the highest demand today, I can build complex apps with the latest technologies from scratch. I have a product mindset and I'm process driven. My weak points are sales and business strategy. One of the skills that I feel I need to acquire is the knowledge and experience for market research. I have a lot of ideas and i have the tools to fulfil them, But no tools to determine which idea is worth pursuing. I would really appreciate recommendations for a good educational source.

To sum up, It’s a real pleasure to find such a thriving community. I hope to learn a lot and to maintain the momentum this book gave me!
Thank you MJ DeMarco for sharing your experience with the world. It motivated me to act and brought back some enthusiasm to my life

 

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[Andy Black]

Hi everyone, I’m happy to join this forum and to share my story.

I’m a software developer from Israel, Working at a “unicorn” startup, married + 2.
I have been dreaming and thinking of entrepreneurship since I was in highschool, But bad choices, lack of self confidence, inconsistency and fear from failure brought me to what i’m today, A slowlane software developer with a “good paying job”, but poor with time, in a constant search for happiness and passion.

I stumbled upon “The millionaire fastlane ” book while I was searching for a solution to set myself and my family free from this depressing, life sucking, energy draining rat race. The thought that time is the most valuable asset and that the lifestyle our society dictates consumes most of it was sitting for a while at the back of my mind, but I never addressed it with the respect it deserves. Once I started to read the book I just felt like MJ opened the door to my unconscious thoughts and formulated them into clear, obvious and structured conclusions.

Couple of years ago I was already trying to start a business with 2 business partners and it went wrong. I always tried to create a system without even knowing it, unconsciously I always knew that we should work on a process to decouple time from effort and unlock scale. But one of the partners who was responsible for sales and marketing was a very dominant one, and apparently his plan was to make me and the other partner as the system. He was selling our time cheaply, convincing us we needed to show some cash flow, and It was too late when we found ourselves with an ineffective process, stalling and struggling to fulfil customers' needs. Without insufficient return for our time we couldn't set ourselves free for the real work, like improving and creating the business process and systems. We were trapped in an endless cycle and I was drained and decided to leave. This bad experience left me with a thought that business is not for me, So I found a convenient slowlane job and moved on.

Years after I left the business I still have the passion to own one, I feel like my life is slipping away. I have so many ideas, so many things I want to do and try, But with a wife, kids and a job, I have only a limited amount of time to try and pursue these dreams. With a drained battery I'm pushing myself every evening and weekend trying to be committed but it feels not enough. I need more time and the book just made it more clear to me, A drastic change seems to be inevitable.

I hope to find support and maybe to give some advice in this forum. My software skills are at the highest demand today, I can build complex apps with the latest technologies from scratch. I have a product mindset and I'm process driven. My weak points are sales and business strategy. One of the skills that I feel I need to acquire is the knowledge and experience for market research. I have a lot of ideas and i have the tools to fulfil them, But no tools to determine which idea is worth pursuing. I would really appreciate recommendations for a good educational source.

To sum up, It’s a real pleasure to find such a thriving community. I hope to learn a lot and to maintain the momentum this book gave me!
Thank you MJ DeMarco for sharing your experience with the world. It motivated me to act and brought back some enthusiasm to my life

Can you “grow what you know”?

Your job pays you to solve problems with your IT skills. Can you start by getting clients on the side who also pay for those skills?

 

[Rperrett2]

I hope to find support and maybe to give some advice in this forum. My software skills are at the highest demand today, I can build complex apps with the latest technologies from scratch. I have a product mindset and I'm process driven. My weak points are sales and business strategy. One of the skills that I feel I need to acquire is the knowledge and experience for market research. I have a lot of ideas and i have the tools to fulfil them, But no tools to determine which idea is worth pursuing. I would really appreciate recommendations for a good educational source.

I agree with @Andy Black , a good start is probably to use your skills and provide a service for someone else. It all starts from there. It seems overly simple but the best advice I can give you after starting my business a year ago is just start doing. Do something, do anything, just start providing value somehow, somewhere. That will move you in the right direction. Some of the best ideas and businesses fall right at your feet when you're doing something else. And movement begets movement. Just starting something will drive new ideas, new opportunities, give you confidence, feel good. Overthinking is tiring and stressful, but doing is energizing! Cashing checks on money you made by providing a product or service that you created/executed is the best!

 

[heavy_industry]

It's not your slowlane job that's holding you back. It's you.

It's not your business partner that sold your time cheap. It's you.

Taking full responsibility for everything is the first step towards victory. You've made some bad decisions, you've suffered their outcomes. But you are the one that can fix this.

Being a software developer and having the skills related to this trade gives you the perfect opportunity to start your own business. But don't think that entrepreneurship is the magic pill that will change your life. Once again, it's you. You will change your life.

I have a lot of ideas and i have the tools to fulfil them, But no tools to determine which idea is worth pursuing.

Ideas are pawns. Execution is king.

Generally speaking, you don't want to come up with ideas. You should be looking for a problem that people are facing. Once you identify the problem, you solve it, and then you sell the solution. That's the heart of every successful business.

Good luck!

 

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[Andy Black]

Generally speaking, you don't want to come up with ideas. You should be looking for a problem that people are facing. Once you identify the problem, you solve it, and then you sell the solution. That's the heart of every successful business.

The word “ideas” is a bit of a red flag for me. I’ve never seen MJ, Vigilante, Biophase, etc talk about ideas they have.

“Tell me what you’ve done and I’ll tell you who you are.”

 

[GilKa]

Can you “grow what you know”?

Your job pays you to solve problems with your IT skills. Can you start by getting clients on the side who also pay for those skills?

Thanks for reply!
While starting a freelancing business might seem to be appealing and the most easiest thing for me to do, This business model may be one of the hardest to convert to a fastlane business model from couple of reasons.
1. It's bounded to time
2. To scale software development business, other software developers should be hired and managed, Software developers are one of the most expensive employees these days and there is a lot of competition for hiring them. The experience software developers working for product companies or corporation, Project companies considered to be at the bottom of priorities.
3. Software development is a very unpredictable process, Unless the business is making some template based Apps (which is definitely an option), Software development is full of unpredictable and uncontrollable parameters.

I'm more aiming towards creating a Saas business which may seem as a more "Naive" and risky option and it requires a long runway and has a bigger chances to fail, But unlike software development model it's much more scalable and predictable once it's done and it's working.

 

[GilKa]

I agree with @Andy Black , a good start is probably to use your skills and provide a service for someone else. It all starts from there. It seems overly simple but the best advice I can give you after starting my business a year ago is just start doing. Do something, do anything, just start providing value somehow, somewhere. That will move you in the right direction. Some of the best ideas and businesses fall right at your feet when you're doing something else. And movement begets movement. Just starting something will drive new ideas, new opportunities, give you confidence, feel good. Overthinking is tiring and stressful, but doing is energizing! Cashing checks on money you made by providing a product or service that you created/executed is the best!

Definitely agree, And thats what i'm trying to do with my free time, When i say my job is holding me back i mean that it consumes most of my energy and my time, And eventually when i work in the evenings and weekends my phase is very slow, A work that can be done in a few days of full time, Is stretching over a month.

 

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[Andy Black]

Thanks for reply!
While starting a freelancing business might seem to be appealing and the most easiest thing for me to do, This business model may be one of the hardest to convert to a fastlane business model from couple of reasons.
1. It's bounded to time
2. To scale software development business, other software developers should be hired and managed, Software developers are one of the most expensive employees these days and there is a lot of competition for hiring them. The experience software developers working for product companies or corporation, Project companies considered to be at the bottom of priorities.
3. Software development is a very unpredictable process, Unless the business is making some template based Apps (which is definitely an option), Software development is full of unpredictable and uncontrollable parameters.

I'm more aiming towards creating a Saas business which may seem as a more "Naive" and risky option and it requires a long runway and has a bigger chances to fail, But unlike software development model it's much more scalable and predictable once it's done and it's working.

1) Start by providing a service? Keep providing it (while getting paid to solve problems) and you’ll start seeing patterns. You’ll inevitably start creating templates and reusing code/solutions/processes. You’ll start getting known, and ideally start niching down by industry served and/or problem solved.

2) @eliquid has a thread about SaaS.

3) There’s also this podcast I’ve listened to numerous times:

• www.TropicalMBA.com/services

4) You’re an IT/engineer type. You’re trained to predict and solve problems before they arise. That strength may actually hold you back.

A line that might help:

“Overthinking is the art of solving problems you don’t have.”

 

[GilKa]

It's not your slowlane job that's holding you back. It's you.

It's not your business partner that sold your time cheap. It's you.

Taking full responsibility for everything is the first step towards victory. You've made some bad decisions, you've suffered their outcomes. But you are the one that can fix this.

Being a software developer and having the skills related to this trade gives you the perfect opportunity to start your own business. But don't think that entrepreneurship is the magic pill that will change your life. Once again, it's you. You will change your life.


Ideas are pawns. Execution is king.

Generally speaking, you don't want to come up with ideas. You should be looking for a problem that people are facing. Once you identify the problem, you solve it, and then you sell the solution. That's the heart of every successful business.

Good luck!

You totally right! the responsibility is all on me, I've made a naive and lazy choices, At the time i didn't want to argue and i gave the other partner the control over me and the business. same for the job i'm avoiding risks and giving somebody else to drive the wheel. I failed and i learned from it a lot this time i'm ready to take action.

 

[Albert KOUADJA]

1) Start by providing a service? Keep providing it (while getting paid to solve problems) and you’ll start seeing patterns. You’ll inevitably start creating templates and reusing code/solutions/processes. You’ll start getting known, and ideally start niching down by industry served and/or problem solved.

2) @eliquid has a thread about SaaS.

3) There’s also this podcast I’ve listened to numerous times:

• www.TropicalMBA.com/services

4) You’re an IT/engineer type. You’re trained to predict and solve problems before they arise. That strength may actually hold you back.

A line that might help:

“Overthinking is the art of solving problems you don’t have.”

Thanks you @Andy Black for your advices. .

 

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[Andreas Thiel]

Nice. I always enjoy SaaS stories. Hope to read more in the future.

One thing you can consider: instead of thinking about being able to solve a complex problem with your software engineering prowess as your most valuable asset (at least for your first product), try to use your experience to get a lot out of as little as possible. Think of something you can do by spinning up 3-5 microservices in a smart way and then spend your time on the things that would be closer to an afterthought when focusing primarily on the product: market research, channels, value proposition, copywriting, organizational topics, business development from the sales person perspective etc. There are so many great open source solutions that are begging to work together in a high level product.

 

[neyos]

Hi @GilKa

I don't have answer for you question. Just want to say, as a software engineer myself. I struggle a lot like you.
Draining jobs, not enough time to work on your ow project and not enough motivation because you don't know the market and more.

Thanks for opening this thread and the answer I read there gave me some hint.