Your App ISN’T Going to Make You Rich
The Billionaire Software Engineers’ Dream Is GONE
So obviously you’re reading this because you don’t believe that title, don’t want to believe that title, or sadly do believe that title.
The title is true however, the gig is up for us software developers. The app that you’re making and hoping to make millions of dollar on isn’t going to make you rich.
Apps never made anybody rich, but that’s the good news.
Well, I shouldn’t say never. Yes, there are anecdotal examples of people who struck oil with some app that went viral. We can site pretty much every major tech company as the exact proof that the subject of this article is a lie.
But the lie is IN the title itself — the lie that we can short cut our way to success with sheer luck and little work. The belief that all it took to make millions was one great idea is the lie that I, like so many others chose to believe.
Now, there was a time when it did seem that investors were throwing money at anyone with a .com or an app that made fart sounds. And don’t get me wrong I’m sure some people lucked out and succeeded more than they should have.
But its no secret that the days of free money are long gone. Software engineers like any other industry should expect some hard work and dedication to create success.
In fact even with the examples from Silicon Valley that seems to contradict my statements, us outsiders often underestimate the amount of work it took for those companies to survive.
Now none of what I’ve said so far is new or shocking. So why am I writing this article?
Because I tried taking the shortcut. I tried making an app and hoping it would succeed. I tried coming up with that killer idea, that next facebook, that next mobile game, that “airbnb for <blank>” or the “uber for <blank>”.
In the end, no app or idea succeeded because I misunderstood the starting line for the finish line.
I lacked understanding of what it takes to succeed when you don’t luck out. I spent so much time trying to find shortcut to the top that I was left hopeless when I never left the starting point. What I thought was failure was actually just step 1, but it’s something I failed to realize at the time.
Each one of my failures was not a failure of developing, it was a failure of understanding where I was and what I was doing. The reason I was caught in this trap is the reason I am writing this article — the danger of obscurity.
You may have heard this before, it’s become a popular saying now, but there are two types of unknowns. Knowing Unknowns are things you know that you don’t know, and Unknown Unknowns — things that you don’t know you don’t know.
THE UNKNOWN UNKNOWN
My danger was in the unknown unknown. Knowledge that you are unaware you do not posses, that without awareness you are unable to seek.
At the end of each project, I found myself asking all the wrong questions because I was simply unaware I was asking the wrong questions. Why didn’t people sign up, why didn’t people download my game, why wasn’t I making money? All seemed like relevant questions, but I was also unaware I was trying to take a shortcut to success.
Like many people still do today, I was building and hoping thing would work out. When I finally started to research business, startups, and the like I started asking better questions right away. But it was still quite a while before I reached my break-thru AHA! moment.
This was going to take work, there are no magic shortcuts, and I need to look for answers myself.
As simple and obvious as those statements may be, I am unashamed to say they took me a while to arrive at. Those concepts represent my victory over erroneously held beliefs that obstructed my success in the past.
Every single project failure I’ve had in the past can be described as mix of two flaws. Either a failure of understanding what I was lacking or what my next steps should have been. Both were the result of holding onto a belief that I never should have had in the first place — there’s a quicker way to get what I want.
SO WHAT CAN YOU DO DIFFERENTLY?
So if you found you related a bit too much to this article, I can give you some advice to avoid my mistakes.
First, realize that making money is a skill in it of itself. You doing a kick ass job doing something isn’t going to result in large sums of cash on its own.
Appreciate that it takes a lot of skill, preparation and work to sell what ever it is you make. Appreciate all the various disciplines that it takes to run a business.
Don’t assume that doing an extra good job at one part of your business means you can neglect another. Understand the roles of a entrepreneur, a marketer, a sales person, a worker, an accountant, hr, etc..
Even if you’re in a business of one person, understand you can’t just do one thing and hope for success just like you can’t do it all. When you run a one person or a very small team, time is your most valuable asset so spend it wisely. Learn to contract, delegate or eliminate work.
Ultimately, you have to get philosophical and define what your goals are and what success looks like to you. Even if you find yourself with a app that has commercial success you may find yourself working 80 hour weeks to support your unexpected demands and questioning whether you truly “won”.
If you’re building an app simply because you can and you want to that’s great, don’t let me stop you.
But if you’re building an app with the hopes of making commercial success. Take the time to educate yourself more on what it takes to make money.
Realize no single person has a formula to follow. In the end if nothing else holds true for you today know this. You are going to have to rely on yourself to find the way to make things work.
Like and share this article, or leave a comment I’d love to hear your feedback. Follow me for further insights into where my entrepreneur life takes me. Check out my work at http://www.rockstarcode.com
