Read this before you become a full-time solopreneur
It might change your mind.
👋 Hey, it’s Orel here! Welcome to my weekly newsletter where I share my journey and lessons as a solopreneur who quit his 6 figures job to chase his dreams.
I am a software developer, and so far I have x4 failed projects, and x3 ongoing.
I also publish Tech Books summaries along with Anton Zaides.
Over a year ago I quit my 6 figures job to become a full-time solopreneur.
The journey was filled with joys, unknowns, mental hardships, successes and, mostly, failures.
But above all, it’s freedom… Right? Well, it comes with some strings attached.
You’ll understand later in the article.
But first, I need to tell you what is it like to be a full-time solopreneur.
I tried to build SaaS products, alone and with a partner, I built a 2,000 followers LinkedIn page, over 300 subscribers YouTube channel and this Substack.
And I made $0 so far.
Allow me to share with you what it feels like and whether it was worth it or not, so you can make a smart decision before you leap.
TL;DR
“Identify the price, and be willing to pay it”
- Morgan Housel in Same as Ever
It isn’t worth it unless you are willing to go through some tough times.
The unknowns
Going on your own is riddled with questions. First and foremost: How do I make it last?
In simple words, how do I make enough money so I don’t need to go looking for a job?
This question will propel you to work on anything just to get that ball rolling. Unfortunately, it’s still an unknown for me.
Then you have other unknowns, like:
What will I do if this fails?
Am I moving in the right direction?
What should I focus on?
How long will it take before I see results?
These unknowns can be terrifying at times. It makes you feel as if you have control over what happens next.
You start shooting everywhere to see what works. I’ll use me as an example.
I tried:
Native app development
Game development
SaaS development
YouTube
LinkedIn
Substack
A course (In the works :))
Freelancing (UpWork and Fiverr)
And when things don’t play out as they did in your head, the hard times begin.
The Mental Hardships
It’s easier to feel good and motivated when things are going good.
It’s the constant failures that make you feel awful.
You will go through several burn-out periods.
I know I did. More than I ever did in my entire life, if I’m being honest.
And the most common question you will ask yourself is:
Am I the only one?
And after reading multiple articles and books about entrepreneurship, I can wholeheartedly tell you:
No.
It’s a common thing. We, as humans, seek predictability.
All these unknowns kick us out of our comfort zone into an unknown territory that makes us feel and behave in ways we rarely did before.
Think about it.
When times are good, we tend to think that it will last forever. That’s why stock markets suddenly, at times, rise to unimaginable and unsustainable valuations.
There are countless examples of that. Take for example the dotcom bubble. For years people thought that the internet was the best new thing, so any website with .com was generously funded.
On the opposite, when times are tough, we tend to think that it too will be permanent. During COVID, people and businesses thought the situation of wearing masks was here to stay.
So much so that a company with $1.6B in revenue, Razer, created a Razer face mask (Which was a complete failure).
Another question you will probably ask yourself is:
Am I working hard enough?
That’s because we read and heard about entrepreneurs, like Elon Musk, who used to work 120 hours a week and sleep in his office.
Or Alex Hormozi, who used to sleep in the gym for many months.
But this is not everybody. These are the people at the pinnacle. the 1% of the 1%.
And that’s, probably, not where you’re looking to be. And if you do, well, I wish you all the best :)
My goal as an entrepreneur is to provide enough value to enough people so that I can have enough money to live the life I want.
I am not looking to change the world for everyone. Just for a few someones.
So to answer the question of whether you work hard enough or not:
You should work enough so that you can keep working and not burn yourself out of the game.
I tried working 12, 14 and 15 hours a day.
It led to over a month of burnout and depression.
But wait, it’s not all gloom and doom!
The joys
I think I might’ve scared some of you off at this point, but for those courageous enough to stick around, I am going to end the article on a good note and follow the Peak-End rule.
“The Peak–End rule is a psychological heuristic in which people judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak (i.e., its most intense point) and at its end, rather than based on the total sum or average of every moment of the experience.
Although living in the unknown is hard, intense and stressful at times, you get one of the most important things in life:
Freedom.
Freedom to choose to work only on things you want.
Freedom to choose exactly who to work with and when.
Freedom to set your schedule and not rely on others’ whims.
Freedom to wake up in the weekend and not dread the week ahead.
Freedom to go work from anywhere at any time without having to report it to anybody.
I can’t stress enough how fulfilling it is to build your own things and your own audience and learn new things to make your life and the lives of those araound you better.
To be of value to someone else that doesn’t need you. But wants you.
So go ahead and take the leap.
You can always get back the money you’ll “lose”. You cannot get that time back.
I made plenty of mistakes during this year. I summarized the top 12 in an article.
And a YouTube video.
What I enjoyed reading this week
Mini tools are 10x more powerful than free trials by
- Another week, another fantastic article by Tom. Go read it, you will not be disappointed.This Should Be Your Number 1 Priority When Promoting Your Business by
- This number 1 thing that David talks about is repeated in so many business and entrepreneurship books that I read. Probably more important than most other things.✋ My 5-step process to debug any issue (I am faster than anyone else) by
- Debugging is 80% of the process of writing code. You MUST know how to do it better and faster. Fran’s suggested process will definitely help you with that.Doing support makes you a better engineer by
() - As solopreneurs, we don’t have a choice but to be the developers and the support team. Ian explains why it should stay this way.
Thanks so much for the mention! 😊