#04 — Accept Failure, Learn Lesson & Get Up
I appear to have failed last week. Yep, it is unpleasant to understand, but need to accept that fact and be ready to learn what needs to change to prevent it in the future. Let’s talk about it today.
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Let’s talk about failures. I assumed that I failed last week when it became clear that goals wouldn’t be reached. Someone will most likely tell us that we must stick to our goals and strive to achieve them at any cost. In some cases, yes, but in most cases, you need to clearly understand the reason why you cannot move forward. And before you rush, resolve the issue.
In my case, it was a real issue. I know that I have the work, and I need to do my job well. I have responsibilities, and I get paid for them. The solution is to better plan your side hustle activities in accordance with your actual workload.
So, I failed. I accept it. It happens sometimes. It does not mean that you are slower. Obstacles will always exist, but we need to find a way to deal with them. And when we realized it, we needed to get up and continue.
✅ Productivity Tip
Review your every past week
Very often, we do something, but we do not track what we did. It seems natural. However, even if you are exhausted, you may feel as if you wasted the entire week.
Remember, your brain performs work and home tasks at the same level. So, if you count only work or business tasks and you think you did nothing, it does not mean that you failed.
Most likely, you did a lot of work at home over the weekend or during the week. Such tasks are usually not written on your to-do list. You just know that it should be done. Look back and find such activities, and write them down as well.
It will help you understand that you are still effective and doing a good job. Not only at work but also at home, which is good for your partners and kids, if you have them. Such work is underrated, but still pretty important.
🤯 Personal Insight
Ask every stupid question to be smarter
I have two kids, and I used to hear pretty weird questions about everything. Children learn about the world through their natural curiosity. It is normal. They're not afraid to ask stupid or silly questions.
But adults, on the other hand, are afraid of asking stupid questions. We have a degree and sell our knowledge and expertise. Asking questions may undermine our authority. It appears to be normal, but it is not.
Many difficult situations may be quickly solved by just asking questions. It does not matter how silly it sounds. It should give you an answer. Of course, you can spend several hours learning it independently, and there is no guarantee that you will understand it correctly. Many things are described in books, but not everyone.
I’m not better than you. I also fight with such behavioral patterns. At the same time, I try to be as curious as my kids and try, test, and ask if I don’t know. You may do the same! One stupid little question will already make you smarter.
Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium, DEV, Indie Hackers, and Product Hunt.
🧘♂️ Next Week Focus
Because last week and partially the week before failed, the straightforward solution would be to just repeat it. It makes sense, but we need to learn lessons. And the main issue is the lack of art in planning.
So, this week, I am going to move slowly but keep moving in tiny steps. It means no huge challenges. Instead, an obligatory list of tasks to do. And the list looks like this:
finish with the projects page on my website;
finish rubrics for the Notion template;
publish this part of the template for free and test the flow;
Nothing more, except work on the content for the blog.
👀 Ivan's Week Progress
Here are the updates for Week 03, 2023.
If you would like to get the full list of details, including real MRR and revenue numbers, feel free to join and subscribe to membership. Every Saturday at 12 p.m., I post updates on BMC under the special plan, “Build in Public”
I reached a pretty good milestone with the number of followers I have on Twitter. 300 people read my thoughts! That’s awesome and inspires me to contribute more. 💥 🎉
Other activities were pretty low, with no promotions of my content, and no building of the products. Even a pretty simple task like adding product cards to my website was impossible due to a lack of energy.
Links storage
During the weekend, I tried to collect my active profiles. I created my page on the service, which Eddie Jaoude created and shared. There are many such services that allow you to create pages with links. But the most important is exercise.
You need to build a list first, then write descriptions and check if something is wrong on the specific pages. It all works well for soliciting your personal brand. I recommend you create your own. It’ll help you find and fix outdated information across your online presentations.
By the way, here is mine — linkfree.eddiehub.io/alroniks.
`Now` page in the listing
I decided to add `/now` page to the website far ago. I even created it right after I restored my old website. Finally, last week, I wrote an email to Derek Sivers and asked him to add my “Now” page to the listing on nownownow.com — here it is!
FYI, I’ve updated the page accordingly to reflect my current week's focus.
Projects, that I’ve done
During the weekend, I have a rest, and on Sunday evening, when the kids went to sleep, I found enough energy to finish my page with the products I’ve made.
In the first iteration, there are only cards with links and small descriptions (and tags, which add a bit more clarity). Later, I am going to make more detailed pages for each product. Pages will have linked blog posts, where I am going to describe the process of creation and other interesting things about the product history.
#buildinpublic in numbers
Success is not measured in numbers. Except for the money in the account, of course. 😏 However, numbers allow us to see dynamics.
Twitter: 305 followers, +33 new
LinkedIn: 1846 followers, +19 new
Medium: 127 followers, +3 new
Substack Newsletter: 32 subscribers, same level
LinkedIn Newsletter: 290 subscribers, +5 new
MRR — see Naked Report: Week 03 — 2023.
I am not actively gaining it right now, but I guess it makes sense to count a number of followers on Product Hunt and Indie Hackers as well.
Product Hunt: 7 followers
Indie Hackers: 3 followers
If you missed previous posts, they may be interesting for you as well.
— #01 — Personal Website Recovering
— #02 — Landing Page
— #03 — Focusing on pre-launch & promotion
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