Justin Vincent

The Madness, The All Consuming Obsession Of New Projects

Something that non-entrepreneurs rarely understand is “The Madness”. It’s the obsession that fills our every waking thought. Like 28 days later “The Madness” is an all consuming rage.

It comes into our life just after THAT Eureka moment. The one when we realize we’ve stumbled upon an idea so big that we KNOW it will make us unimaginably wealthy. This idea will bring us respect. We will be hallowed as the new Gates, Brin, Page or Zuckerberg.

When “The Madness” sets in, romantic candle light dinners break down. As our loved one looks us in the eye and whispers sweet nothings, we try to hide the fact that we’re thinking about scaling Couch DB on the Amazon cloud.

Then start the late nights as we obsessively code our new baby into existence. Along with the distance between us and the rest of the world. Later and later to bed we go, until two weeks into “The Madness” our hours are topsy-turvy. We’re sleeping from 4AM -> 10AM. Living off Coke and Starbucks.

There’s only one way out of “The Madness”.

We have to think our idea through from every possible angle. We have to imagine every tiny twist of it. We have to gorge on it until we are full. We have to become disgusted and completely bored with our idea.

Then, and only then, can we come back to reality. To our friends, and to our partners.

Such is “The Madness”.

The “Tiny Software Company” Revolution

There’s a new phenomenon taking hold. This is the era of the “Tiny Software Company”.

Indi-developers are are starting their own “mom-and-pop” software companies all over the world.

And they’re leaving work. And they’re making a full time living.

Peldi started a million dollar industry with one simple Adobe air app. Patrick Mckenzie is making a full time living from his ridiculously nich app Bingo Card Creator. I’ve been pulling in $1000/month for the past year with Pluggio. Taylor Norish makes a great living from PrintFriendly. Pete Michaud became financially free at 25. The list goes on.

So what this all amounts to is…

“If you’re a software developer with an idea… GET OFF YOUR ASS and MAKE IT HAPPEN! There’s never been a better time! ;)”

(p.s. Post links to your projects in the comments below)

Don’t Confuse Self-Worth With Entrepreneurial Success

I dedicated 15 years to becoming a professional recording artist. My favorite musical time was spent with Doug, Eugene, & JP in the band called Moneypenny (1995-2000). We were predominantly a live band. We regularly played live gigs across Ireland and had huge amounts of fun doing so. We also played national TV and radio a number of times. We released an album and a few singles.

How we looked back in the day:

That was 10 years ago.

I haven’t been able to talk about music since then (until recently).

During that entire musical phase I placed so much of my self-worth on “musical success” that not achieving it was a huge blow.

It’s an important lesson for all want-to-be entrepreneurs.

When we undertake entrepreneurial endeavors we are told to put everything into it.

But how much is too much?

At what point do we draw the line and understand that our own self-worth will never be fulfilled by building a successful business, or by becoming an internet rock star?

I get the feeling this is the central theme of “The Social Network”.

No matter how much success Zuckerberg was able to achieve, no matter how rich he was able to become, he could never get the acceptance he craved from his peers. Finally, he understood this when he became the richest most famous graduate of his college class – yet the one girl he craved to accept him wouldn’t even return his Facebook friend request.

It’s not an iPad app, it’s an EVERYTHING app

When I released my iPad app Swarm I didn’t know what to expect. I was very lucky because it instantly hit the front page of the app store in the games category. It stayed on the front page for 2-3 weeks.The below chart is an accurate trend chart showing exactly how Swarm sales have been doing for the past four months since launch.

It doesn’t take an Einstein to see what happened here. When the app is no longer on the front page sales are a non-event.

At first I thought:

How can I tell the world about Swarm and keep up my sales in the app store? I know, I can drum-up PR on the web. Then people will learn about Swarm and purchase it in the app store!

But… doesn’t that sound like a leaky bucket?

Think of all the people who will be reading about Swarm NOT using an iPad. In fact MOST people will be on a desktop, others on mobile, some will even be on Google TV or any number of other devices.

Hmm.

I shouldn’t be thinking in terms of iPad app, or iPhone app, or even mobile app. I should be thinking in terms of an EVERYTHING app.

No matter what device someone is using when they hear about Swarm , they should instantly and always be able to download and purchase it there and then. That’s the only possible way to capture 100% value from marketing & PR efforts.