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The thing with passive income is: You only get to passive income if you love to work on a specific problem. I think, most solo founders who are successful today

by WA 9y ago

The thing with passive income is: You only get to passive income if you love to work on a specific problem. I think, most solo founders who are successful today didn’t do it for the money. They found a problem and wanted to work on it, regardless of the payoff. Sure, a nice payoff would’ve been great, but that wasn’t the initial motivation. I think the psychological aspects are vastly underestimated when people try to find ideas for a business. There’s a reason why startup land says don’t make a fuzz about ideas. Few people are interested in implementing solutions for problems that they don’t care about. Caring about the problem helps a lot to get through times when it all seems too much and you still don’t see any success. I enjoy reading those idea lists, but I never implemented one and I think they’re worthless mostly, because there’s no emotional involvment from me.

bigiain 9y ago
Not sure that's iron-clad true - I doubt patio11 "loved working on" Bingo cards or appointment reminders, and I'm reasonably sure neither were problems he was trying to solve for himself.
- WA 9y ago
  Better ask him, but I suspect he did enjoy it to some extend. I doubt he did it only as a money grab, but rather because of some interest in the problem. Maybe not the domain of bingo cards itself for too long, but everything else that comes with that: writing, explaining the product to teachers, SEO, marketing, customer support, automating everything.
  - patio11 9y ago
    There were probably higher-productivity ways to get money than writing bingo card creation software for elementary schoolteachers. To put it mildly. I didn't have "an itch" for either problem myself but I did really, really love throwing myself into learning how to run a business. BCC felt like a relatively low-risk way to do that. (AR didn't ever feel particularly low-risk -- and the stresses implied by that are one reason why I'm glad I don't run it anymore -- but that is neither here nor there.)

by WA 9y ago

bigiain 9y ago

Not sure that's iron-clad true - I doubt patio11 "loved working on" Bingo cards or appointment reminders, and I'm reasonably sure neither were problems he was trying to solve for himself.

WA 9y ago
Better ask him, but I suspect he did enjoy it to some extend. I doubt he did it only as a money grab, but rather because of some interest in the problem. Maybe not the domain of bingo cards itself for too long, but everything else that comes with that: writing, explaining the product to teachers, SEO, marketing, customer support, automating everything.
- patio11 9y ago
  There were probably higher-productivity ways to get money than writing bingo card creation software for elementary schoolteachers. To put it mildly. I didn't have "an itch" for either problem myself but I did really, really love throwing myself into learning how to run a business. BCC felt like a relatively low-risk way to do that. (AR didn't ever feel particularly low-risk -- and the stresses implied by that are one reason why I'm glad I don't run it anymore -- but that is neither here nor there.)