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This very much depends on how motivated you are by external validation. For some people, the fear of losing social capital by not following through on a public
by mindgam3 7y ago
This very much depends on how motivated you are by external validation. For some people, the fear of losing social capital by not following through on a public commitment is motivating enough to accomplish stretch goals.
Source: used this technique to overcome my own procrastination trying to launch my first app as a solo founder. It worked, and I went on to raised a million VC to see if I could scale up the vision of a social goals app.
The downside of relying on external validation, as I learned the hard way, is when your self improvement startup goes down in flames, you really feel like a fuckup.
- rubbingalcohol 7y agoI announce my projects so people can tell me how stupid I am and it makes me more determined to succeed and show them how they are actually the ones who are stupid. I guess I'm petty like that.
- mindgam3 7y agoI feel that. One could argue that all ambitious entrepreneur types are motivated at least partly by a burning desire to prove that the other guy or “the system” is in fact the asshole.
- fhbdukfrh 7y agoI don't agree. True ambition is very self centered, almost egotistic. The detractors never have as much invested as you and are largely irrelevant. You don't do it because they say you can't, you do it because they don't even exist.
- phkahler 7y agoDefiance. Often a negative trait, sometimes a motivator. Learn to control and harness it.
- fhbdukfrh 7y agoShouldn't you be doing this as a positive for yourself, instead of for a negative, external motivator?
- tighter_wires 7y agoplease tell me you called your app "GoalTender", if it involves payouts for social goals.
- mindgam3 7y agoNot bad, except the thesis involved social capital, not actual cash. The actual app was “mafia” branded, playing off of Mafia Wars which was big at the time. Your friends on the app would motivate you with virtual gifts and (naturally) virtual threats, like posting a dead fish on your wall.
- soulofmischief 7y agoUltimately, if you feel like you gave it your all until the end, whether you made the correct decisions or not, then in my opinion it was a good journey. Think of everything you learned in the process and how it's helped you since then! The opinions of people who don't understand that don't matter.