On August 31st, 2018 I left my job at TD to pursue a passion project. I worked on that project blindly for 4 months and realized it had no potential. Now, looking back makes me wonder if the project was the reason I left or if it was the pursuit of creating something. Either way, after failing, I dove into a few other things to keep busy. I learned basic Game Development, Android Development and how to work with AI APIs.
While working on all that, I got into York's Launch YU incubator to help accelerate the testing of products in the market... and if there's one thing I've learnt from the program, it's to talk to users.
I know I know, every single person who's ever built something knows that this is Rule A of the game. It's the 1+1 of creating something. But in my defence if it was really such a no-brainer then why do a vast majority of things fail. My resume of failures is extremely well polished; it has everything from a movie pirating website to an AI based news summary app... and although I've not yet reached the point that would make me happy with what I've done, I do take a great deal of pride in saying "I haven't yet quit".
But the question does sneak into my mind. The questions "will I ever quit" or "what if I run out of money" are constantly in the back of my mind, and that's where I prefer they be... at least for now.
I'm now working on another project, and it's as exciting as everything that has come before it, which clearly is no indication of its merit or success. But I'm approaching things in a very different way now. The rule "code when needed, market otherwise" is the new-found mantra.
Alongside, my brother has come to share a few of my perspectives. With me being an optimist and him a realist, our view of the world couldn't be any more different, but there's one thing we both agree on; "the next 5 years are everything". We have to take every opportunity we can to bat and hit a home-run. We aren't afraid of the curveballs and we sure as hell aren't afraid of going out swinging.
So if this works out within the next few months, and shows credibility, then the goal of finding that problem worth spending a decade on could be achieved.
