HN Explorer

What causes me to quit my business attempts?

5 points by Ptrulli ↗ HN
Hi all,

I have the entrepreneurial itch and have had such for numerous years. I tired my hand at various businesses; physical products on Amazonfba, affiliate marketing, podcasting, newsletters and so on.

I always find my unmotivated to continue after some time. But I am unsure why, I start with excitement, which is short lived, the topics are no longer interesting causing me to slow down, stop and quit. Could this be the main reason? I find i am very much someone who likes to learn something as its exciting I enjoy creating but after that initial phase, I tend to get bored or unmotivated.

My question is, has this happened to you and if so did you ever figure out why?

Also, how did you reinforce good habits?

Did you come across a resource that changed your perspective? If so can you share?

This isnt easy for me so I thought id reach out.

Thanks!

12 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 42.3 ms ] thread
version_five
As soon as I figure something out, I lose interest entirely, without strong external pressure. I think it's ADHD (it's also impossible for me to stay awake as soon as I'm bored).

Try a manual job that keeps you moving, or a job where you can't get comfortable or put things off too much, e.g. working closely with clients, ideally along with a type A colleague who forces you not to slack off. That is where I have been most productive. (Aside from in grad school where i had more interesting stuff to do, but usually that was short spurts of focused work interrupted by long periods of being super bored and not doing anything. It's the Sherlock Holmes model of working).

readonthegoapp
Have you ever had any success?
Ptrulli
AmazonFba was kind of successful to a degree, issue was the price point in that particular niche was just to small so advertising ate up a lot of profits.
cercatrova
Discipline over motivation. You need to cultivate discipline rather than relying on spurts of motivation.
Ptrulli
Any resource suggestions that I can look at?
cercatrova
Well here's how I did it.

Read everything on r/getdisciplined sorted by top all time. There are some good posts in there like No More Zero Days.

Read Atomic Habits. Great book about discipline.

And don't just read these resources, you have to apply them as well.

patatino
Newsletter and podcasting are very long-term oriented. Most successful people in those spaces need several years until they "make it".

I would propose something where you get beta users quickly and get feedback from them. Nothing motivates more than people using what you are building and interacting with you.

Ptrulli
Thanks this is a valid point, ill try this out!
rofws
I might be wrong, but what you have mentioned as businesses are only mediums to achieve a (business)goal. For eg. - Goal can be 'showcase your expertise on XYZ topic to attract specific kind of people' and the medium would be podcasts or newsletter. That way, if your medium is unsuccessful, you can always change the medium without losing sight of the goal.
Ptrulli
Good suggestion and point here. I am currently looking into becoming a subject matter expert on a particular topic of interest, as of now, I feel like I'm not on any topic. Rather I know a little bit about various topics.
rajacombinator
Starting is a rare skill set. Finishing is even more rare.
slovette
I’m going to guess that you are young (<30)?

If so, my only advice is just keep doing what you’re doing. Start, get bored, start something else, get bored. Do it over and over again. Don’t stop.

Keep going until you find yourself into something that you don’t WANT to let go.

Life has a way of guiding you on its own. Just keep going until you find it.

There’s nothing wrong with you. You just haven’t found “it” yet. Which is just fine.

Keep going.