Throwback to mid 2014, 9 years ago. I just left my job as a designer in a government Ministry. It was a stable, iron rice bowl kind of job. It provided what I needed to get married, buy a flat. But I left that safe harbour to try fulfiling my dream of owning my own business. I wanted to push myself. I wanted freedom. I wanted to create products and SaaS.
I wished I could code, but it was waaay hard for me.
So I simply started with what I was good at – design in government, but as a consultant. That made me a good living, but also made it hard for me to learn coding. I tried from time to time for the next few years, got bored of the online classes, dropped out, lose interest, forgot about coding. Then many months later the same process would repeat.
I still wished I could code, but hated coding. I only loved making products.
It was only till 2020 that coding finally stuck. In Dec 2020, I made Lifelog, my first SaaS. That’s already 6 years since quitting from my last job.
That took a while.
And now 2023, I feel like I’ve only just started. Hitting $1k monthly revenue is like turning 1 month old as an indie hacker baby.
Learning to code took 6 years.
Hitting $1k revenue took 3 years.
That took a while.
Remember when you wanted what you currently have? – @poppacalypse
But everytime I feel impatient with my progress, this question always helps me come back to some gratitude. And most importantly, to be gentler and kinder to myself.
10 years ago, I wished I could code.
10 years later, I can, and make money from it.
Now that’s worth celebrating.