Dev Retro 2022 tale of confusion to confidence

2022 is well the fastest passing year in my life. It started and continued with a bit of up and downs and confusion but as they say, everything went well in the end.

Last year in Feb 2021, I started my website iHateReading, the domain is purchased and the website is registered and hosted. But one year down the line, in march 2022, I haven’t made any sort of growth.

Let's begin the story -

Challenges

Website challenges

In March 2022 I decided to revamp the entire website. The idea is to create something that is at least valuable if can't solve any problem.

I have heard a lot of founders saying the same thing, again and again, to look for the problem, face it and solve it for at least one customer in order to succeed.

To be honest, I don't know what exact problem I want to solve through my website. I've decided to move forward without thinking much and revamped the entire website adding some new features such as emailing the early customers, asking for feedback and so on.

It didn't go well, the entire march of writing code was in vain because zero feedback and only 10 active users on the website 😁.

After a month of dedicated work and writing a lot on medium, hashnode and devto, I was not making enough money to pursue so the only option left for me is to go for a job. Hard but it's a reality.

After one month of rigorously seeking interviews and applying for jobs, I got 5/6 interviews in the end. Some of them reject me and some of them I've rejected.

Light in the Dark

But during one interview at the end of June 2022, I had an interview with the founder of a US-based company where the founder has 15 years of experience running multiple startups.

The whole interview was scheduled for about 45 minutes, but we end up having a conversation for 3 hours. We had talk a lot about what is blockchain, the benefits of having blockchain, the entire technology and future and all. It was more like a conversation between 2 founders.

He asked me about my website iHateReading. I told him the entire idea of why I've started this and where it stands and so on. He liked the idea, in fact, love it, he give me some tips and the most important tip is to shut down every other stuff on the website which are time-consuming and stick to the basics the reason why I've started this website.

Revamp the entire website by deleting a lot of unwanted and unnecessary features that are time-consuming.

Take 6 weeks to revamp the entire website from UI to performance to the idea and almost everything. Stick to the basics of why you have started it and reach near to it.

That message hit me very hard although he rejected me for the job opportunity saying that I am sure I will run and make the website a successful business.

Fast forward to July 2022, it's time to revamp the entire website and stick to only the required feature.

• I did the same, I've deleted almost 60-80 files of at least 2000 lines of total code.

• Optimised the entire website from features to UI to bugs to performance.

Within one month the new website is launched again this time with a clear goal, which is to give important and useful content to the developers and designers that are easy to read, easy to understand and most importantly easy to implement.

That conversation was a game changer, it was like a light in the dark tunnel that helps me to get better and better and keep going (VAMOS).

One conversation changed a lot within me.

Youtube Challenge

I already started my Youtube journey way back in 2021. But after a month of work, I didn't get any subscribers so I've stopped working on it like others.

But in May 2022, I received an email from Youtube about gaining a subscriber. Yes, youtube sends an email when you get every subscriber, this is so instant gratification for initial YouTubers in their early days.

Then after 6 months since I left Youtube I was still getting views and one video got more than 2K views. That hit me hard again, I was surprised and happy that people are watching my content. In May 2022, I decided to pick youtube again and this time with a better mindset and positive energy.

Accomplishments

Website accomplishments

The newly revamped website was loved by people and started getting decent traffic and daily active users. The website is still growing but at least I am confident and know in which direction I should probably move.

A couple of new things are planned and implemented such as

• Updates over email and

• Uploading new videos or threads or repositories every day on the website.

• Getting subscribers to the newsletter on people's demands

I am confident now that I can move ahead in a promising direction, I've faith that this will become self-sustainable one day, and till then I will keep improving it.

Youtube accomplishments

From May 2022 to July 2022 I posted almost 10-20 videos, not much, and the content was also not good😁. I was still learning to edit, the art of storytelling and editing thumbnails and so on.

I was loving the journey and along with my website, I was working on Youtube also. My best friend was helping me a lot in my Youtube journey and we are using Notion to manage scripts and everything.

From August 2022 to September 2022, I picked the pace and tried to upload at least one video every day. I know it's hard but who cares now is the time to pull the strings and move forward.

This is my Notion page for youtube videos uploaded in august and September.

Almost one video for 2 months or sometimes 2 videos every day were uploaded back to back for 2 months, that was intense 😁 but satisfied in the end.

I've just now hit 20K views on Youtube, at the time of writing. I am glad at least some people are loving and watching the content.

I am confident and sure that I will improve on Youtube also, the content, and the storytelling will get better and better. If I will improve the subscribers, users and success will automatically come so I am not worrying much about the results now.

I am only focusing on my doing and not thinking much about outcomes or so-called RESULTS.

By the way, if you want that Youtube template below is the link.

Get the template => Youtube-Channel-Manager-Template

Lessons Learned

Well, it's not just one lesson I've learned so far. The journey I've lived so far is full of ups and downs but I am glad and satisfied that I've handled it without any hesitation. Of course, the stress was there but the most important thing is how you handled it.

Money is just a fuel

In the past year, I've learned that money is just fuel. It's the important paper for the initial days but it's not everything. The most important part of your vehicle is the ENGINE.

The engine is your mind, the vehicle is your body and money is the fuel to get food, water and everything. Treat it accordingly.

My advice, if you going for entrepreneurship, have at least the next 5-6 or 3-4 months of money to sustain.

Learning Software Development is not Hard

Yes, it's true, it's not rocket science. All you need is to be consistent and a bit more organised before getting negative about it.

Initial days are always hard for learning anything in the world, from football juggling to swimming to learning skateboarding nothing was easy but since we enjoy the process we keep trying.

Similarly, learning software development is not rocket science and all you need is to google how to learn, from where to learn and be consistent.

If you want here is the roadmap for Frontend Development, get the template and start your journey.

Please note that this is not a promotion blog, the template has helped a lot of developers to start Frontend Development from scratch and master it.

Get the template
India 👉🏻 : shorturl.at/bmAOZ Worldwide 👉🏻: shorturl.at/mwAKO

Start as a Project

In this good-read story from the Founder of OpenAI, Sam Altman said that most of the big companies are started as a project including Google and Twitter.

• The best way to start anything is to create a small project or MVP, launch it and test it asap.

• Once you test the idea in the market you get a green signal on what will work and what will not.

It took me one year to actually experience it and still, we all, including me, did the same mistake again by developing entire projects first and keep on developing them without testing in the market.

Launch your project in 6 weeks and test it asap, rest features can be released after 6 weeks once you get the green signal from the market. This will help you to stay focused and consistent.

Making Money is an Art

It really is, you can smile at the people who are doing shit work or so-called shit business but in the end, they are making money on their own.

Kudos to the people making money using their skillset, it’s a tough business to sustain and my best wishes are to you.

Your 4 years of graduation days + 5/10 years of professional experience will hardly teach you how to make money.

It's a real game and only real people are playing and winning it.

A lot of companies are still not profitable they are dumping the investor's money for so long and then they go for mass layoffs. Do you want to make such a company in future?

Being financially independent should be the GOAL and making money should be the first step towards the GOAL.

Plan Before Execution

You will fail if you have no plan or you will waste your time. I did and we all did but still never understood it.

Plan everything before execution, execution before planning is just a step towards failure.

Write down everything either using Notion or use Notes app or use pen-paper but just write down everything before even doing it. Make it a habit it and will certainly help you in long run.

Consistency is so Underrated

We all heard it a lot but we never understand it until we experienced it. Now I've experienced I am able to get more focused on daily work rather than monthly income or outcome.

Being consistent is hard, we never planned anything for more than 6 months, our mind is so fickle and we always want something new to develop, something new projects to work on.

This will not work in long run and you only need to explore 37-40% of your life and then settle down to one or a few things you want to pursue forever in order to succeed.

Be consistent and hard-working rather than lucky and overnight, GOOD THINGS TAKE TIME, remember this every time you are feeling low.

Life is Still Unpredictable

We have a very good say in India that life is unpredictable. Nothing is permanent and most of the things in life are temporary.

It's okay to be uncomfortable and it's okay to be comfortable, just enjoy both situations by knowing that this shall too pass.

Relax, take a deep breath and start again if failed and continue if succeed. Bow your heads down and keep doing your work.

Enjoy not being predictable.

The PAST is your history and the FUTURE is the mystery the most important thing is TODAY which is why it is called the Present.

Conclusion

That's it for today, I hope you love the story of ups and down. The story is from an open heart and I am glad I can share it with you.

I am not an active writer on Hashnode but thanks to this #DevRetro2022 challenge providing me with a platform to share my story.

Thanks for reading, Until next time, have a good day.

**Keep developing
Shrey
**iHateReading