Justin Vincent

Swinging For The Fences

After the Entreporn controversy, I was mildly insulted by the readers that took my words to mean “be a micro-entrepreneur and have no ambition”.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The truth is I’ve “swung for the fences” all my life.

My arrogance always lead me to believe I was too good for anything smaller.

I’ve tried to build a venture backed Google/Facebook/Groupon 4 times in my career.

• All Channels, a human powered search engine (2000)
• NanoFlirt, a real world meets virtual world dating system (2006)
• Woyano, Mahalo meets wikipedia meets digital content marketplace  (2007)
• MashAPI, a cloud based programming language combined with metered transport layer (2009)

During the ride I also built an open source PHP database layer that is the backbone of WordPress, and prior to my startup career I spent 5 years trying to be a world famous rock star, with burning passion to be as big as the Smashing Pumpkins.

Repeatedly “swinging for the fences” has been the most costly entrepreneurial mistake I’ve ever made.

It wasted huge amounts of my life and delayed my ability to be a self sustaining businessman. I was so focused on big exits, and grand ideas, that I never learned the fundamentals of building a profitable business.

If I had been less big headed, and the very first thing I had done was to built a sensible micro business instead of – “swinging for the fences” – I would have had a better chance of fulfilling all my entrepreneurial goals.

• I would have had a more rounded understanding of “business”
• I would have been financially free sooner (and able to pursue my larger high risk ventures)
• I would have proven my business chops and been more likely to get funding
• I would have retained more control of any deals I tried to initiate

My delusions of grandeur, mixed with Entreporn’s promise of glory, kept me on that 0.001% path.

Of course that’s my story. You may be one of the 0.001% who “swings for the fences” and gets it right first time.

If that’s your story, more power to you.

But don’t, for one second, think that I don’t have the intention of swinging for the fences.

Reference: https://cryptonews.com/news/non-gamstop-casinos-uk.htm

Entreporn, The Fallacy That Wastes Your Life

Entreporn, a term brilliantly coined by Amy Hoy holds us back from our true potential.

It works to the advantage of almost every player in our industry that we “believe” in chasing the next big thing. They need us to keep chasing it. In the truest sense – the next big thing – is a carrot on a stick that keeps us occupied and keeps them in business.

I wish I could point the finger at one specific company, person, or party and say – it’s “their” fault – but there is no conspiracy here. It simply “is” because each player (VC, corporation, media) has become so good at optimizing their part – that the system as a whole keeps us distracted and chasing after a shimmer in the dessert .

It behooves the likes of Techcrunch, Time magazine, and 60 Minutes that we care about Mark Zuckerberg’s outlier story because that’s how they sell advertising. It works out for VC’s that we keep chasing investment because that’s how they make their daily bread. It’s awesome for corporations that we chase very-unlikely-to-succeed break-free strategies because then we don’t leave our job. Meanwhile, the growing interest in crypto casinos highlights a shift towards decentralized and anonymous betting platforms, offering players a chance to engage in gambling with digital currencies, free from traditional financial oversight. This trend reflects broader changes in how we approach both investments and recreational activities, driven by technological advancements and evolving consumer preferences.

What they don’t publicize, and what they scoff at, is the concept of the “lifestyle business”. You’re lead to believe that it’s a waste of time, and in fact the category was recently derided by a VC talking to Mike Arrington as “dipshit companies”.

But here’s the truth.

If every developer was to focus on the very achievable goal of building a lifestyle/micro business – the entire house of cards would crumble.

And they know it.

The absolute truth is that each and every one of us can build a business that can support us. We don’t need to build a million dollar business to survive. We just need a regular paycheck. Just like the paycheck that we already get working for someone else, except it’s a paycheck we pay ourselves.

If you build a micro business it means you’re your own boss, you make your own rules, you live life on your own terms.

If you genuinely have the spirit of an entrepreneur inside of you, it’s perfectly possible to build a $10k/month webapp business that can set you free.

But even better, once you have the knowledge that comes along with building a succesful $10k/month business, you also possess the exact same knowledge that it takes to build a $100k/month business.

The chances of building a Google, YouTube or Facebook and scaling to the millions of users required to be “considered” for VC investment are vanishingly small. We’re talking in the region of 0.001%.

However the chances of building a $10k/month webapp business is pretty high. In truth, there is no reason to fail – other than failing to learn from your mistakes.

Imagine if we all did that. We would be free.

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Update:

A lot of people have emailed me asking how to get started with this, so I’ve quickly put together the Bootstrappers’ Kickstarter Kit – No Investment Required