I personally started the whole thing for learning purposes. I don't have a computer science background, so it was exciting to learn all of the different concept

I personally started the whole thing for learning purposes. I don't have a computer science background, so it was exciting to learn all of the different concepts. Most of it was initially driven by curiosity and challenge. But it is also worth saying my first attempt (at Elixir) sucked and it demotivated me to work on the project for 6 to 8 months. It was only later I learned/figured out some of the answers or possible solutions to the problems I was having and that motivated me to work on it again. Once I asked my partners to let me work part-time on the language, I prepared myself it would have to be a long term effort (at least 2 years). Then people started using it and that in itself kept me going (and it has been like that for almost 9 years now). In all fairness, I also do struggle with motivation when starting hobby projects, even more larger ones, and especially if most of the challenges have been addressed. Also what keeps me motivated changed throughout the years, so I try to be mindful of that.