Why I Made Learning My Goal

Sending this letter late today, was away camping for the weekend.

It was a good trip but I’m glad to be back at my desk.

Before I left I was thinking a lot about my future goals and eventually launching a SaaS product.

For the last few months I’ve been caught in the trap of looking for the “perfect” idea before I start working on a new project.

I’ve thrown away ideas because I didn’t have the perfect monetization strategy or know 100% which audience to target.

What I eventually realized (after a long journaling session) was that I was optimizing for the wrong things.

I spent all my energy trying to find the business that had the highest chance of succeeding with my current skillset/knowledge.

There will always be problems with whichever side hustle/business you try, so you have to pick which ones you want to deal with.

Software is hard and will likely take me years to learn enough to have my first bit of “success”, just like YouTube did.

I was watching a video from Y Combinator about launching your first startup and I felt it was speaking to me directly.

They basically said that founders often put way more pressure on launches than they should.

I’ve feared launching a product I’ve been building and having no one use it.

What the video made me realize is that no one will actually remember the “failed” launches you had and the only way I could ever learn how to successfully ship a product was to actually do it.

When learning becomes the goal, the pressure of building something new is much lower.

I’ve set a goal for myself to launch something by the end of 2024.

It’s not going to be perfect and will probably fail, but I will learn 100x more than if I sit around and wait for the “perfect” moment.

When you optimize for learning failure is no longer a bad thing.

Each failure teaches you something new that you can take into your next attempt.

The only way to find worthwhile problems to solve is put yourself in situations where you’ll be exposed to them first hand.

My “strategy” is to build a product that solves a problem I have, share it with others by showing how it solves my problem, and iterate/pivot when necessary.

I believe in validating ideas (and wrote a letter about how I did this once) but I will only learn how to build a SaaS product by actually building a SaaS product.

I Used an Ultrawide Monitor for 4 Years (Worth It?)

I’ve tried several monitor configurations over the last few years but found that a single Ultrawide works best for me. I made a video talking about my experience and who I think ultrawides are best for.

Things I’ve found interesting

links to valuable stuff I thought was worth sharing

Why Startup Founders Should Launch Companies Sooner Than They Think - I think this applies to any side hustle or business in general. You will learn far more by just starting rather than waiting for the perfect moment.

I'm 31. If you're in your 20's watch this. - Always love Oliur’s videos. I think videos like this are applicable to anyone at any age looking to better their life.

3 Bad Habits Holding You Back from Financial Freedom - This video is definitely worth a watch. One of the bad habits was not creating an environment pushing you towards financial freedom, where the obvious solution is be around people also pursuing financial freedom. What’s less obvious is your digital environment (e.g. the content you consume) which has just as powerful of an effect.

Have a great week.

Cole

P.S. If you found this letter helpful, please consider sharing it with a friend :)