how to be unstoppable

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My first failure

I spent $1,000 to ship my first product.

I was building the Headspace for parents. So my voice clips needed to be as good. I paid to script, record and edit my sound clips. I failed.

Months later I learned…

Headspace was founded without sound clips. Without an app.

It started as an event organizer. Organizing in-person meditation events. The founder, Andy Puddicombe, a monk, would literally sit in a room with actual people. And help them meditate.

You don’t need fancy features to ship your product. You need one feature. And you should ship immediately with that single feature.

Why? One word. Momentum.

What makes something unstoppable?

If you want to keep moving, you need momentum.

In physics, momentum = mass x velocity.

So for high momentum, you either have to be HUGE…

Or you have to be FAST.

🚛 A huge but slow vehicle is hard to stop.

🏍 A tiny but fast vehicle is also hard to stop.

As a solo builder, your mass is TINY. That leaves you with one thing: you have to be FAST to not stop.

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How to keep it fast?

One answer: optimize for fun.

Starting to build something is fun. It should stay that way. The longer it drags on, the less fun it becomes.

Once the fun starts running out you’ll find yourself:

• procrastinating

• making up excuses

• abandoning the project

How to keep it fun?

With short feedback cycles.

Serve, listen, serve, listen, serve…

This way, you’ll preserve your initial momentum.

Take a look at this:

• 🥳 Finding an idea: fun

• 🥳 Starting to build: fun

• 😟 Finishing it: not so fun, you don’t know where to finish, whether to finish, what’s next etc. (Cure: finish fast)

• 😩 Marketing it: hardest part. “Will they want it? How will I market it?” etc. Momentum, lost. (Cure: market fast)

So keep the cycle short. Ship with one feature. Preserve the fun. Build, ship, see what they think.

Hack yourself. Move on before the fun runs out.

A few personal words

Last week was school holiday here in the Netherlands. So we made a road trip to San Sebastian, Spain, a 12-hour ride from where we live.

With a 4-year-old, a 1-year-old, and an electric car, it was a challenging journey with many stops. 😊

But Sen Sebastian did not disappoint. Leaving you with some photos I took.

That's it for today!

Let me know what you think. Your feedback is the single most important thing to me.

Just reply to this email. (I read & reply to every single email.)

Stay building!

Love, B.