Growing. Slowly.
It's hard to believe it's almost two years since I posted 'Is this a terrible idea?' and 'Build or Bail?'. I ended up bailing on the idea, for these reasons and others:
- There's already a lot of competition
- I wasn't sure I was providing a better solution than what was available
- I was still in the middle of a painful separation from a business I co-founded, and product I invented and built (a story for another time)
Around the same period as those linked, I posted about something that's been holding me back. This is the meat of it:
Are there any autistic (or extremely private/reserved/shy neurotypical) IHers who find it's a constant battle to put yourself out there, share what you're doing, speak to people you don't know...all that stuff often classed as networking? Community building seems to be crucial for small businesses/indies to achieve success, but when you've a strong tendency (compulsion, even) to keep to yourself, how do you counteract and overcome it?
@channingallen gave a very helpful response and his book recommendation (Mindset) contributed to my growth this year.
And that's what this year has been: slowly growing, healing, recognising my own value and being prepared to step out more.
I was slowly reinvigorated and ended up returning to the idea I bailed on. Why? Because I'd spent months trying combinations of other offerings (One, FastMail, Hey, AnonAddy, SimpleLogin, etc) but each had limitations that made them impractical to work with. I finally felt frustrated enough with the circumstances that fixing my problem became a priority.
And it turns out, I really like the service I'm building. It's a work in progress, but I'm making progress, and it's working for me. I kept quiet about it partly because I was still working through some things (see above), and partly because I wanted to ensure it was stable before I let anyone put their emails in my hands.
I've started weekly posts on progress and other points of interest. The latest can be found here. I welcome feedback on the site, the idea, this post, whatever you're open to sharing.
If you got this far, thanks for reading.
