Ask HN: Business Is Making $400k / Year– Now I Don't Know What to Do with Myself

You could consider joining the board of a non-profit you feel strongly about. You'd get to work with a team, and you could pitch in on day-to-day operations as a volunteer.

Also, I'm just a developer so take anything I say with a grain of salt.

Take a step back, take another step back. Think of these things. Idk how old you are, but I am 26 and think about this stuff daily and often. Today is a rather dark day personally for me.

Right now I think human purpose is to continue building our technology as a species so that we can expand through space. But that really doesn't help the day-to-day stuff

It looks like that you are in a comfortable place. What if you put yourself outside of your comfort zone? You know, put yourself in situation where it forces your drive or motivation to kick in. Example, work in a charity for homeless people for one year or Help out a hospice for kids.

Good luck on your search.

Can you share what you think made your business idea succeed?

I'd suggest not increasing your spending like I've read humans do in such cases and instead planning your personal finances to get the most out of your success. After that, disconnecting for a while would be good to get rid of any burnout. It doesn't have to be that long, but disconnected enough to give perspective. Then figure out what you'd like to do with your freedom and resources you have left.

You're making good money means you must have learnt a few things you can teach others, so why not share that knowledge. It is the best way to do something new while keeping yourself in the game and meet a few like minded people too.

coincidentally, I'm also 31 in a similar situation. Probably will automate/hire for the day to day stuff, then work on a hardware project.

I did do a lot of pretty amazing things during that time though. Enjoyed my life. Went backpacking a bunch.

But I think if you have something that's on fire, just fucking grow it. If you don't have something on fire, sell it and try to do something new.

That loneliness you described is more like "emptiness," and you should keep looking for inspiration to fill that space. You can find inspiration anywhere – there's no wrong answer! Woodworking, pottery, and taking classes all sound bomb.com. Some other suggestions:

You can travel. Going somewhere I've never been before, where I don't even speak the language, has reliably kicked me out of these lulls.

You can find something else to pour yourself into. In the past, I've just taken advantage of these uninspired periods by devoting a few weeks or months to another "bucket list" goal of mine (i.e. training for and completing an Ironman).

You can make new friends or visit old ones. Visiting old friends who knew me really well in a previous chapter of my life is a great way to shake me out of a funk. It's a good reminder of where I've been and gives me perspective on where I want to go. I also love reconnecting w/ people I really respect and admire, people who have also been my biggest supporters. As Rumi said, "Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames."

What you've described sounds extremely familiar to me. If it really is the same thing, I'd tell you that it's normal and definitely not forever. While some people wait for something to happen to them, I'd say be proactive and go search for that new inspiration!

Ps. I'm 30 and plan to start a family soon(ish), too. Our thinking is that these are the last kid-free months we'll ever have again, so we're trying to squeeze in as many adventures as we possibly can. Perhaps you and your wife should, too!

Good luck, and congratulations on reaching this level of success w/ your business! Feeling uninspired at this point just means that you've conquered one challenge and are hungry for something new to sink your teeth into.

I would say take a break of a week or two and try to do outdoor activities with two or more people - strolling, walking, sports etc and meditation as well. As you mentioned joining some classes like woodworking or pottery might help as well. Hope this will put you back into regenerative mode.

Otherwise, here is a cool side project I am starting to try and build at the moment too - a desktop Muon counter. http://cosmicwatch.lns.mit.edu/about

I would, but I really can't add anything to this. Go.

It's a great way to fill a few hours while honing your skills and growing and learning too.

Do good works. Change someone's life - it's very rewarding.

Nature is full of wonderful things to explore and take notice in.

In other threads I came across mention of a very small book called Constructive Living. It may of may not be of help.

There's good advice in this thread but nobody has pointed out the very real danger you face: you've evidently got a really good thing going, but your attitude could cause you to lose it. Either you won't give it the attention it needs and it dies or someone hungrier than you will steal your market share before you even notice.

The other thing you can do is to sell up. The only thing I can promise you is that nothing lasts forever - you've got a good thing going now so you could find a buyer who might offer you anywhere from 4-10x turnover. Maybe even more. At the very least you could become somewhat independent by paying off your mortgage or having a comfortable nest-egg while you come up with other plans.

So to conclude, I feel you have two options - get bigger or sell up. If you go travelling to "find yourself" or become a woodworking expert or go into education or just fill your life with more distractions you could lose everything.

tl;dr: Cash == Freedom; Distractions != Cash;

It's really hard for me to self-motivate. I get into slumps where I don't make progress on anything, then I spend a lot of time feeling bad and thinking about what to do, and then loop back to not doing anything.

If you look at Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, 'esteem' needs is right below self-actualization and what you and I do is bounce between these two levels. When you work alone and can't self-motivate, how do you satisfy the need for a sense of accomplishment, for power and prestige, for respect so you can self actualize?

Sometimes all I need is a goal. The right goal can kickstart my desire to do things and progress makes me feel accomplished, but these goals are hard to find.

Sometimes all I need is a checklist. Checking things off as done is a great motivator for me but it requires having things I need or want to do.

When I don't have a goal or a checklist, I hop on hackerrank and do practice problems. The ranking system is an ok motivator, I get the sense of progress and accomplishment when I complete a problem and I don't feel like I'm wasting time like when I get that from a video game.

After a while, I realize hackerrank isn't really doing much and I want to get out of the loop. This is when I start planning every half hour of the day. I write it out for the next day at the end of the day, set alarms and do whatever the schedule says. It's no longer up to me, I have to follow the schedule. When I'm writing the schedule, I think about things I might be interested in, things that would help others, things that would bring me health, wealth and happiness. I consider how much and what I could get done in half an hour, write it down and do it. Eventually I find something I like and it starts filling my schedule. After some time, I stop scheduling because I'm doing that all day. Then I usually get bored and start the whole loop over again.

Every 100 days I have a reset day (it's in my calendar) to stop and identify what brought joy and accomplishment and try to stay out of the feel bad loop.

I'd distinguish this comment from other comments in that it is OK to not scale this to $4m, but it would be a shame to see this decay to $300k, then $200k, and then disappear.

And then just let it rip...go for it. $400k a year is only the beginning. Take it to $4m. Like someone else here said, that'll definitely give you a lot to do. If you don't do it, the risk is that someone else will in due time.

It could be a lot of fun and personally rewarding especially if you already have a solid financial set set up and especially if the growth means you can take on employees to create new jobs. Job creation, especially in the community where you live, is a huge net positive.

If any of this resonated with you, then you know what to do.

My family and my church committments shape what I do when I’m not working. After that my favourite things are working on the sheds I made in my garden and walking. I’m fortunate to be Irish and surrounded by plenty of green.

As you get older you will start to think more about what legacy you leave behind. You may as well make a start thinking on this now as you have had such a good headstart.