Wasted 8 months on my app?!! Here's the full story...

I’ve worked on BuilderCollab since last July (it is March now)

What I felt I was lacking most was technical skills. I was always the one getting carried in my group assignments, and it just took me more time to figure out things than my experienced peers.

From July to early January, I worked full-time to create my app.

I told myself, that if I can’t do this, my hopes for doing any tech projects/startups are crushed.

This sense of urgency allowed me to push through and work really hard. I learned user research, design, bootstrap, tailwind, JavaScript, React, Firebase, MERN stack, databases, and project management.

So yeah. I learned a lot :)

In January + February, I knew I needed to step up my game. I wanted to push out my product, get users, and build a startup because it seemed like the next way to one-up myself.

But I was fully aware that I didn’t do things the startup way. I made the product first, then talked to people/potential users about the problems they face.

I was hard on myself because I needed some sort of traction but hated doing it by myself.

I understood I must be unbiased when talking to potential users, and that I must think of it as a learning experience. But I was too attached to my product to actually do that.

In addition, I’ve heard plenty of horror stories of people building full apps or solutions, and no one wants them.

I was aware of all this and didn’t want to be one of those people.

But I was.

I knew I would fail, but needed to be sure that I would fail. So I gave myself 3 assignments to evaluate where I stood.

After doing all 3 and evaluating the results, I would either take the L or continue.

I’m proud to say that I didn’t give up. I failed, which feels great! At least I can respect myself.

There will be lots of “L”s, but somewhere there will be one “W” to compensate for it.

And don’t worry, I’ve been working on other, more promising things… so stay tuned.

Lessons Learned & Summary

In the following newsletters, I will share weekly updates with you on what I’ve learned, my startup/builder journey and will strive to be a source of encouragement for you guys.

In exchange, this will help me communicate better and keep me accountable.

Feel free to subscribe for more content or share this newsletter with anyone else who would find this useful on their tech journey!