This may seem common sense to most, but it’s taken me quite some time to realize this simple lesson:
Only focus on what you do best.
If there’s one thing I hope to remember and act on it’s this. When it comes to entrepenuership I’ve tried to wear all of the hats and do all of the things.
My first leg in the journey was telling myself in order to start my own internet based business was that I needed to personally know how to build SaaS products.
I mistakely believed if I could build it, then people would come passively. I’m naturally interested in learning how things work, and how people interact with these almost magical pieces of digital art.
I thought I could make some kind of service that would provide value and passively earn income.
If you could see the size my /home/pierce/projects folder. I’ve probably spent close to a thousand dollars on domain names and hosting for projects that have never really taken off.
Accepting what you do best
Part of the pursuit of becoming the Full Stack developer is eagerly learning all facets of the development process. And I’ve spent the last better part of the decade doing just that.
However, I’m a big believer in that real living is outside of your comfort zone. So at this point, it feels like I’ve reached the point where nothing in the development & engineering world presents itself as outside of comfort.
Sure there are things out there to still learn in detail, but nothing that’s so wildly complex I second guess myself that I can learn it.
So my mind naturally moves to new areas: marketing, sales, the cores of business development.
I’ve spent money on books and courses, but unlike the self education in software development; none of it stuck with me. And I think I’ve reached the point where I realize that’s because it’s just not interesting to me.
And that’s ok.
What I look forward to doing in 2020 is going beyond proficentcy and into craftsmanship. I want to dive into concepts and learning my tools beyond the 80% into the 95%.
Saying no to everything else leads to focus
One of the smartest things I did back in college was spending a weekend with an e-book on a specific full stack framework and pairing with someone that had a business idea.
Without that pressure of building something up to spec and a vision, I wouldn’t have done on my own. I love the idea of building I know now I’m not particular in what I’m building.
I like learning about new markets & industries, but I’m not the one to identify shortcomings of other products because my focus is the nuts & bolts of technology. I enjoy the process of analying a problem and breaking it down into manageable pieces.
Building a full stack application is such a large undertaking, don’t underestimate it. And this is just 1 facet of starting a business.
Have pride, but appreciate
Accepting that I can’t do it all has lead me to not feel defeated, but gives me a deeper appreciation and understanding of others. Attempting to learn their skills has helped me, sure. But better yet it’s taught me just how deep you can go into these other areas.
I thought I was a generalist, but really I’m just a technologist generalist. That’s still A LOT to know.
That’s the law of scarcity though, I chose to go down deeper and deeper into software engineering. I’m very proud of the sheer amount I’ve learned. I think it’s possible to learn anything, but do I really want to? Nah. Let’s work together instead.