Tonight while waiting for footage to render (something anybody who makes videos knows a lot about) I pulled out my laptop and indulged in a favorite pastime-mining old threads for gold nuggets. Although I learned some specific things, what stuck out to me more than any one post were some dates on posts. I did some digging and collated the data from just four threads.
Have a gander at these four timelines:
At least 4 months, longer if prior attempts are considered.
At least 9 months
36 Months (!)
19 Months
What are these timelines? They are the amount of time between when @ChickenHawk @JasonR @Likwid24 and @Vick (in that order) began pursuing their current venture (and they were probably planning or thinking about it earlier than that), and their first major success, which I'm loosely defining as the transition of the project from uncertainty of serious, job-liberating success to realization of it as a viable possibility in reality.
Why care about this? Because it's mid January, a great time to talk about what happens when resolve crumbles.
Lots of ideas on here get "started" and then dropped a week later. Some make it a month or two before the first barrier comes, then they're dropped like a gym membership in February. I just want to remind you all of some of the barriers the people above faced:
Chickenhawk-Self-reported unsatisfactory reception in another genre before writing her novel, being a mother while trying to be a writer.
JasonR-Mentorship/Copycat debacle in the wake of podcast, other people in the space were already making a product like his before he even started, possible mentorship issues.
LikWid24-Major manufacturer was already in the space (unbeknownst to him), felt like quitting in the early stages because of difficulty and competition, had a very strenuous full-time job, flubbed a pitch line on national TV.
Vick-Complete circus of incompetence from his manufacturers overseas early on, had to deal with a deadbeat partner, received defective prototypes, had to take out loans.
Where would they be if they quit? In the same place they were the year before, back to square one, back to the drawing board.
Where are they now? LikWid just shipped out displays to every Home Depot in the country, sold out in the burbs of NYC in days. Chickenhawk sold nearly 400 books a day for over a month. JasonR's analytics are awesome, and Vick's revenues on Black Friday were mind blowing.
Think of everything they went through without giving up, and what you came up against in the past that made you give up. Maybe next time, you should think twice before you quit.
***And thanks to these four fastlaners for providing the inspiration for this post, please feel free to speak up if I made any mistakes***
Have a gander at these four timelines:
At least 4 months, longer if prior attempts are considered.
At least 9 months
36 Months (!)
19 Months
What are these timelines? They are the amount of time between when @ChickenHawk @JasonR @Likwid24 and @Vick (in that order) began pursuing their current venture (and they were probably planning or thinking about it earlier than that), and their first major success, which I'm loosely defining as the transition of the project from uncertainty of serious, job-liberating success to realization of it as a viable possibility in reality.
Why care about this? Because it's mid January, a great time to talk about what happens when resolve crumbles.
Lots of ideas on here get "started" and then dropped a week later. Some make it a month or two before the first barrier comes, then they're dropped like a gym membership in February. I just want to remind you all of some of the barriers the people above faced:
Chickenhawk-Self-reported unsatisfactory reception in another genre before writing her novel, being a mother while trying to be a writer.
JasonR-Mentorship/Copycat debacle in the wake of podcast, other people in the space were already making a product like his before he even started, possible mentorship issues.
LikWid24-Major manufacturer was already in the space (unbeknownst to him), felt like quitting in the early stages because of difficulty and competition, had a very strenuous full-time job, flubbed a pitch line on national TV.
Vick-Complete circus of incompetence from his manufacturers overseas early on, had to deal with a deadbeat partner, received defective prototypes, had to take out loans.
Where would they be if they quit? In the same place they were the year before, back to square one, back to the drawing board.
Where are they now? LikWid just shipped out displays to every Home Depot in the country, sold out in the burbs of NYC in days. Chickenhawk sold nearly 400 books a day for over a month. JasonR's analytics are awesome, and Vick's revenues on Black Friday were mind blowing.
Think of everything they went through without giving up, and what you came up against in the past that made you give up. Maybe next time, you should think twice before you quit.
***And thanks to these four fastlaners for providing the inspiration for this post, please feel free to speak up if I made any mistakes***
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