Sometimes Reading Indie Hackers Can Feel Depressing

Hey Taylor, you see only the tip of the iceberg. For every success celebrated here, on Twitter or everywhere else, there are 100 or 1000 things that didn’t work out, but people don’t post about those. They are very real, just... invisible!

Taylor! Firstly, I can totally relate, I actually try to avoid coming to IH for the very reasons that you addressed. I am figuring my way out on my startup, but I think the biggest realization that I made is for me to be a better version of myself than to compare to other people. We all have different paths, and different destinations, we just do the best we can and eventually get there. There was a podcast episode that really brought it home to me (I can't remember the episode name off the top of my head) but also the book 'The Surrender Experiment' by Michael Singer was really eye-opening for me. Keep your chin up, if you need someone to just shoot the shit with or someone to hold you accountable or wanna talk about your startup journey shoot me an email. I'm working on trainermade.com myself.

Hey Taylor, I'm in the same boat as you mate!

Everyday, I look at those "milestones" tab and see people reaching their dream figures. Yet here I am, I've been working on making stuff for about 5️⃣ YEARS, and STILL figuring it all out with no success whatsoever.

I've abandoned most of my previous projects either due to failed validation / onboarding
/ finding "product-founder" fit & lastly, due to lack of motivation / loss of interest

Currently, I'm working on a new product for about a month, and I'm planning to take it slow and keep my expectations in check. I'm excited for this one, and I'll do whatever it takes to push it out there!

What helped me recover from burnout, is to just take a break for a couple weeks, and then start afresh. Reduce consumption of IndieHackers & Twitter, and take it slow on your own path.

We should look at our own steps and try to climb them, because everyone's steps are differently shaped / spaced / numbered. Conquer your self, and you'll be able to conquer anything!

Good luck 👍

I can relate to this Taylor as when I originally embarked on my startup journey I had NO CLUE what I was doing.

The most important thing I have learn is to accept the journey I am on. If I look back over the last few years I have learnt so much, and I'm sure you will have as well. Don't forget that. Even if you're not where you want to be yet, the experience you have gained will be setting you up for something great.

All the best!
Marky

"Everyone congratulates you when you get pregnant, but not one asks you how many times you have been screwed for that to happen"

Don't remember who said it originally

I love to see people #hustle and go hard and succeed.

I also love to see people step off the gas when they need to take a break.

Hustling all the time, even in the face of burnout, is a recipe for disaster.

If you're reading this, and you feel like you need a break, DO NOT feel ashamed of stepping off the gas.

You can't run on empty. Fill the tank, then floor it!

I know how you're feeling. I was feeling the exact same way two nights ago. Nothing worse that putting effort into something that isn't successful.

I hope you don't give up. I hope everyone on here keeps going. I've been tempted to give up many times and I still might, but your outlook on tomorrow is inspiring!

Well, I have been in the same situation a lot of times and now as I think, this is the reason I left instagram a month ago. I just couldn't bear it!

I am new to the "indie journey" and I am learning a lot. As others said, It is best that we don't compare ourselves with other. Our progress is different than others.

I feel the same way. Lots of really successful people on here while I struggle to get any of my side projects to become profitable. Sometimes I start to feel really crappy and compare myself to other folks and think that I should just give up. It feels like there is so much advice online that I consume that I should be able to figure it out but it doesn't really feel like I'm making that much progress. I don't have a ton of advice just that at least with my blog, I post 1 week at a time and treat it like a marathon rather than a race. There are tons of bloggers who have reached success faster than me but I try to remind myself my blog isn't as niche and will take longer to see any results.

I would suggest taking a break fro IH. Comparing yourself to others can hinder your own personal development. You're gonna be able to focus a lot more if you spend less time here and then come back with fresh motivation.

Honestly, I don't find much value in the forums here. I used to draw value from the interviews. In my opinion those have since gone to crap. Now I get value from the podcasts. I drop into the forums occasionally because I'm a 1 man team and have no social interaction with anyone during the day aside from customer support emails (which I don't enjoy after doing it for 3+ years every single day for a low priced B2C product... it gets old).

If the forums aren't bringing you any value, just stop coming. Stick with what's helping you.

I've learned that keeping motivated is important. Anything you can do to prevent motivation from getting destroyed is very important. Even with keeping that in mind, it still gets destroyed at times. Being an entrepreneur has made me a lot more "emotionally aware" of myself.

Indie Hackers can be a great source of motivation, but it can also be demotivating to see everyone seemingly making so much progress while you're not.

Just remember that everyone who has succeeded has failed dozens -- sometimes hundreds -- of times before. The defining feature between a successful person and an unsuccessful person is perseverance!

So keep on pushing forward, but don't forget to take breaks every once in a while. ✌

Ya I get the same. I've got a little chrome extension that I've poured 5 months into, with around 400 users now, we get ~5 organic sign ups a day and it's been next to impossible to get users to talk to us. I pop on here and see these people that got 1000 free users in their first week, or 100 paid users over their first month and just wonder what I'm doing so wrong.

Dude, in Spain we say, "Tell me what you presume about , I will tell you are missing".

Many things here are also marketing stunt...or simply not true or with a small text or....i could keep going.

But others says less than they actually do...

I know how you feel. I've been in pretty much the same situation. That's one problem with these type of sites - not just IH - the posts always to focus on successes but not that often (it does sometimes) do you get to see the failures so it looks very biased.

Its a tricky thing to get any kind of success with your own projects - I've been trying for a while - and still going, I'm sure you'll get there eventually it just takes a lot of time unless you are very, very lucky.

Yep, I felt this a while back and left for a while. Perfectly normal.

Everything in moderation. Just unplug when you need to and pay no attention - keep doing your thing.

I am also a bit conflicted on the "always hustle" mentality. In the end we are humans, we need time to relax, to think about other stuff, to do things for fun or just try out new things. I know that hustling everyday is the best way to achieve greatness, but I think that it comes with a huge price and you should really be careful with doing it or with even promoting the "work yo' ass off" mentality. No one knows the meaning of life so no one is right, neither the ones who hustle 24/7 nor the ones who slack all day and do nothing.

Hey, @ryanb58 I have cycles every few months where I get really depressed and anxious that I am wasting my time. I don't have a solution or a fix for what I am feeling right now. Generally, I would just not focus on trying to build stuff or come up with something and spend some time with the kids, to get my mind off. Which actually helps. But the last few months have been hard. I relocated from Denmark to Sydney, almost got screwed up due to the COVID19 outbreak. So many emotions and feelings which is hard to explain to someone else, unfortunately. The majority of the people around us don't have the same vision or capacity to understand where these feelings are coming from. Sometimes I manage to talk my self out of these cycles. And sometimes it's hard and difficult. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for you. But, just hang in there. This too shall pass. Also, know when to get help. Sometimes bottling up will not help.

As the teacher always says, "Focus on learning, not success"

It totally resonates with how I feel on other platforms, especially on LinkedIn. However, as other comments point it out nicely, there's no reason to feel low because of this.

I've come to realise that it's just a time difference, i.e people who're posting about their successes also started out early. So, it's really not something to worry about :)