The Months When Nothing Happens
What it feels like to keep building before the results show up
As many of you know, I left my full time job last month.
For the first time in my life, I don’t have a steady tech paycheck arriving every two weeks.
It feels like a very different kind of life. More than anything, it’s a test of mental strength.
Every morning you wake up and start working on something, even though there’s no guarantee of what the return will be. You begin with the belief that what you’re building will be valuable someday. But when days pass and nothing obvious happens, it becomes another test of mental strength.
You open social media and see people raising money. Indie hackers posting their MRR and ARR dashboards. And you can’t help but wonder what you’re doing. Another test of mental strength.
You still have a mortgage. Bills to pay. You dip into your savings, even though you knew from the start that you would be burning money for a while. But watching that number go down is another test of mental strength.
Some days you simply don’t feel like working. You’re tired. It feels like nothing is working. Maybe you take a day off, but you know the next morning you have to get up and start again. Another test of mental strength.
Your mind jumps six or nine months into the future. You imagine the worst case scenario where nothing works and you have to change course, maybe even go back to looking for a job. That thought alone can scare you. Another test of mental strength.
But there are also things that keep you going.
You meet friends and they ask about what you’re building. Some of them say they wish they had the courage to do the same. In those moments, you feel a quiet sense of pride. You’re doing something many people only dream about.
You get to define your own path to freedom. You learn uncomfortable things along the way. You become a little more vulnerable to uncertainty, but that vulnerability helps you grow.
You are your own decision maker. No one is going to tell you what to do.
You read books that slow you down and make you think.
You take walks. Even a few minutes of walking can bring perspective.
And somehow, that’s enough to get up and try again the next day.