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I cringe when I hear stories like this, because I know what it feels like when something doesn't work. It's tough to get back up after being knocked down, but t

I cringe when I hear stories like this, because I know what it feels like when something doesn't work. It's tough to get back up after being knocked down, but this is more than that. This guy has been on the ground the whole damn time, and he's just figuring it out. I hate writing negative things like this and I'll probably get down-voted, but this boggles my mind. > So I took a shot, I hired a programmer and a designer. I made payments for 2 years to pay all of this off. I had a custom logo made, I had a custom CMS implemented and I spent a lot of advertising. I applaud his effort, but that is absolutely insane. You know what else can be done in 2 years instead of paying for a programmer and a designer? You can learn to program and design. Yes. You really, really can. Anybody can. 2 years is a really long time. And not only will you have a custom logo and a custom CMS after 2 years, you will unlimited custom logos and unlimited CMSs for the rest of your life (not to mention a whole load of other things you can do with skills like that). I'm not even going to comment on whether the idea was a great idea or a fundamentally flawed idea, but I can definitely tell you he made horrible time/money investment choices along the way, and that's why he failed. > Now 3 years later my website has had about 30 users, and about 20 things posted to it. I am out a lot of money, I have almost no friendships because I spent almost all my time at work, college, or on the site. I spent way more than I ever should have. I have become depressed and I can not believe I was so stupid to think an idea I had could make it. It really hurts to read this... but are you kidding me? Not to sound arrogant, but I honestly don't even know how that's possible. 30 users over 3 years? And there are how many billions of people on the internet? He spent a "lot" on advertising... where? A bathroom stall in a funeral home? Does he know what Google is? At this point in his rant, I couldn't resist any further. I had to check out the site. It was better than I expected, but not great. It looks eerily reminiscent of a pretty standard Wordpress template. Stanley Web Design should be embarrassed of this work, and this guy should be embarrased for hiring them. All I can say is that I sure hope he learned something from this, because if there's anything to be gotten here, it's a few pretty big life lessons (one of them being not to rely or depend on others to get anything done for you). I sincerely hope that he picks himself up and tries again, but maybe with a little more know-how and elbow grease this time around.

kenjackson 16y ago
You know what else can be done in 2 years instead of paying for a programmer and a designer? You can learn to program and design. First, most people who aren't programmers don't know what can be learned in two years. If you aren't a programmer you may not even know where to begin. And I'm not a designer, but I took some drawing classes in college... but I don't think I'd invest the next two years of my life to see if I could be a good enough designer to create logos and other assets. I'd much rather pay someone who can show me a kick butt portfolio today. I don't think elbow grease was the problem. Rarely is, IMO. It's not knowing the business and the market that screwed him. And that's what he needs to know better going in. Learning Ruby or MVC or Javascript wasn't the delta between success and failure.
- guynamedloren 16y ago
  People can do anything if they want it bad enough.
  - cubicle67 16y ago
    * for low values of anything
coderdude 16y ago
Two years isn't really that long. I've been doing what I do for 14 years and I still have a lot of room for improvement. I can't imagine what it would have been like to start a company based off my first two years of programming and design experience.
- localhost3000 16y ago
  2 yrs is a massive amt of time for something like this. I built and deployed my first web app (which had greater complexity than this one...) in 3 weeks starting from close to zero knowledge. All it took was determination and the willingness to work around the clock for a brief period of time. I gained a huge amount in that short span so my advice to others would be to stop talking about it and just do it.

kenjackson 16y ago

You know what else can be done in 2 years instead of paying for a programmer and a designer? You can learn to program and design. First, most people who aren't programmers don't know what can be learned in two years. If you aren't a programmer you may not even know where to begin. And I'm not a designer, but I took some drawing classes in college... but I don't think I'd invest the next two years of my life to see if I could be a good enough designer to create logos and other assets. I'd much rather pay someone who can show me a kick butt portfolio today. I don't think elbow grease was the problem. Rarely is, IMO. It's not knowing the business and the market that screwed him. And that's what he needs to know better going in. Learning Ruby or MVC or Javascript wasn't the delta between success and failure.

guynamedloren 16y ago
People can do anything if they want it bad enough.
- cubicle67 16y ago
  * for low values of anything

coderdude 16y ago

Two years isn't really that long. I've been doing what I do for 14 years and I still have a lot of room for improvement. I can't imagine what it would have been like to start a company based off my first two years of programming and design experience.

localhost3000 16y ago
2 yrs is a massive amt of time for something like this. I built and deployed my first web app (which had greater complexity than this one...) in 3 weeks starting from close to zero knowledge. All it took was determination and the willingness to work around the clock for a brief period of time. I gained a huge amount in that short span so my advice to others would be to stop talking about it and just do it.