Successes and failures in creating your project (startup)

Hello friends. I decided today to write not about a specific technical solution, but about why these technical solutions are generally needed. The word "Startup" is already on edge, so I will use "My project." The article will be a lot of philosophy and analytics. Since without this, it is difficult to count on success. So, today I will share with you my experience, and the experience of many of my colleagues who tried to jump off the corporate galleys and climb on their project.

I'll start from the beginning. From the moment when a person decides to plunge into the fascinating world of IT, he immediately begins to dream about his project, which will surely bring him fame, success and the opportunity to live comfortably.

Just want to make a reservation that not all people dream of their IT business. Many people are quite satisfied with the fact that they work for wages and see no reason to do something different. Therefore, I will be talking only about those who have a “propeller in the fifth point” and all the time strive to fly up. By the way, I am one of these "Carlson".

Immediately, we must immediately realize that the probability that we will join the group of those micro-percentages of people whose project immediately “fired” and brought success, tends to zero. Just take it as an axiom and rely not on blind luck, but on common sense.

The very first moment I will destroy the illusions of people who rely on the fact that:

1. No one before me could do this project (hundreds and thousands of attempts to create a specific project, with a specific idea), and I will succeed.
2. I became a juno in programming and now I don’t need to study further, I will do my project and let the others work for me.
3. There are a lot of ready-made projects, I just copy it and make a better design, and success is guaranteed to me.
4. I will create such a complex and confused functionality that no one can compete with me.
5. I want to make a masterpiece that will beat the "miserable" competitors in a swoop, so my project will be created over the years.
6. I decided to create a strategically important project on important and burning topics that always concern the society. Therefore, I will always win.
7. My project will be tied to 100,500 all sorts of other people's services and API. I’ll just do a little wrapper around all this and make money on services.
8. I will create my aggregate service, which will pick up interesting content from everywhere and will serve it in a more convenient way.
9. I will create my blog, become a cool blogger and make a lot of money on it.
10. I will begin to teach people how to become a millionaire, to succeed, I will sell my courses and books.

I think I’ll stop on this for now. To the adepts of blind faith in their miracle, the abilities and capabilities that after reading this, they began to ask: “What kind of heresy does this man carry?”, Please immediately pass by by!

So, let's go over briefly on each item.

1. This is stubbornness and just banal stupidity. If a person is not able to immediately realize the fact that the percentage of failures is going off scale, is not able to come up with another idea where the odds may be higher, then medicine is powerless here. Self-reliance and vanity in this life have killed more than one project (and life too). It is necessary to draw conclusions, and not to fall and bend your line, again and again, stepping on the same rake.
2. Again, commonplace arrogance. A person simply does not have enough technical knowledge to complete the project. And if the project is created, “as I can and I sing,” then the output will be the corresponding result. But more often than not, the project is not fully completed.
3. This is one of the oldest and most frequent delusions. We know nothing about who created the reference project and how. How much time and resources it required. But for some reason, we blindly believe that it is only necessary to copy everything (visually, because otherwise it will not work), then only success awaits us. Sometimes, on the old and very trust resources there is no design at all. But attendance does not suffer at all. Anyone who can answer the question why this is happening, will solve half the problems already, while thinking about creating a similar clone.
4. Very often, intelligent experts create complex and cool functionality, a lot of chips and buns. But it does not bring any financial success. And all because the functionality in FIG is not needed by anyone. In order for the user to be eager to use your project, he needs much more than cool buns. And most often you need cool content or so obvious benefits from your service that it is ready to move from competitors to you. And this is unlikely, since competitors have long been present on the market, have a share of this market and are also not asleep, but are trying to improve their service.
5. I was on this project, which was created 3-4 years !!! They wanted to make such a cool "monster" that will beat all competitors with a swoop. As a result, at the time of release, all the applied technologies, innovations and killer chips not only became outdated and died, but even caused terrible disgust among users, who felt that they had slipped a "poo" in a candy wrapper, and not a technological masterpiece. Hence the moral: "A spoon for dinner is good." If the market has a need to get something here and now, then it should be given right here and now. It may not be a masterpiece, but it is better to immediately take a market share and refine the project than to invest huge amounts of money in a stillborn thing.
6. Here the main problem is that there are millions of such projects. They all look alike, and even very often they steal content from each other. These are all kinds of entertainment sites, various forums, a bunch of services for the sale of tickets and events, all kinds of social networks and their clones. In general, this is not an original idea at all, and it occurs to all strategists who have decided that in the realm of vital problems it is easier to catch fish from the pond.
7. Here, even to explain nothing. In fact, your project turns out completely and not yours. Since there is a bet on other software products from which you will depend on 100%, with all the ensuing consequences.
8. This idea is not new and very popular in the vastness of IT. Since it is quite simple in essence, and simple to implement. Someone is inspired by Yandex Market, someone is Lun, but for some reason, few people think that these projects become profitable in their promotion to invest millions of dollars! So, the software implementation itself should not be in the first place as the main problem at all.
9. There are no comments here. In fact, there is generally no point in software implementation, since the charisma of the blogger himself will come first. Here you are creating not so much a software product, as you are yourself in the role of expert / showman / media personnel. But do not forget that the entire Internet is replete with all sorts of mediocre bloggers who want to earn at least something, eventually sliding into advertising for some sex services or online casinos. The success stories of individual bloggers are not numerous. Plus, the program will not earn, but the man himself. Since without new interesting blogs about him quickly forget.
10. This is generally a classic of the genre. If a person does not know how, knows nothing, but wants to earn, then there is only one way - to “teach” others. In fact, the entire Internet is replete with such nuggets who have not achieved anything themselves, cannot show their real success, but always sell some courses, some super ideas, how to get rich, etc. If you still have the terrible fate of teaching others how to become successful and successful, then you should have half of the world in your competitors!

Ten items sorted out what's next. And then you need to learn to think soberly, throw away such a thing as faith, on the back of your optimistic soul. It is always necessary to proceed from doubt. There is even a great saying on this topic: “Fools are confident, but smart people doubt!”. You need to be critical of yourself and the words of others who speak, foaming at the mouth, about the success of other people, without knowing anything about the history of this success.

For example, tell the real story. An acquaintance of mine argued that his neighbor had created a small project (some kind of saytik), had conjured him over half a year. And yesterday, he found out that his neighbor had bought himself a new Lexus and moved into his new country house to live. Attention! What conclusion did my friend? That's right, the project of his friend shot and he became incredibly rich. But now he also wants to get rich, so he starts creating his own kind of program. 100% enthusiasm, 100% energy, 100% faith in success! On critical comments and quite obvious non-docking in the narration, the reaction is zero. On the analysis of this situation from the outside, absolutely not biased person - is also zero. As a result, I am envious, I am a pessimist, I am a walking depressed person. The moral was simple. His neighbor was the son of the first mate measure of the capital. And just a couple of months before the “govnosite” miraculously fired, a major reconstruction of the roads began in the city.

From here I conclude that such “success stories” are flooded with the entire Internet. People want to believe in a fairy tale, apparently without this their life is dark and unbearable. Therefore, it is necessary to develop analytical abilities in oneself, and to calculate all your steps, from the inception of the idea, then its possible monetization.

Do not look for and read success stories. Most of them are deceitful and completely useless. It is better to look for stories of people who have failed, to read their experiences of failures and because of what they happened. This will remove the rose-colored glasses and get a real experience, which is not read in the books, and not heard on any courses.

Anticipating your questions about whether I have achieved something in the field of my projects, I answer. No not achieved. I had dozens of different ideas and projects. I implemented them all, brought them to the final end and did not earn a penny. Only lost. But I do not lose heart and continue to think about new ideas. But I don’t rush into battle with the sword. But, on the other hand, I achieved success as a corporate rower at the gallery :) But this is a dead-end path and I still harbor illusions of escaping from this vicious place.

P.S. Everything is possible in this life, and success is also possible. But you only need to approach the issue of creating your project with a large share of critical judgment, calculate everything and everyone, and don’t rush to throw your money and time into the project, so it may not pay off. Dare, and I hope that with the right approach you will succeed.

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