Increase your chances by throwing more darts

Recently I started to read a book, “The Art and Business of Online Writing,” and what struck me is the repeating pattern I see among successful founders.

The author of this book, @Nicolascole77, took on the challenge of writing every day on Quora for a year. Some of his responses got a lot of views, some not. One time he hit the jackpot and reached millions of views. That further escalated his career to another level.

On another note, we see @levelsio building dozens of products and only a few are successful. @marc_louvion is another example.

I’ve experienced it personally too. I have built over 17 products in the last 12 months, and only a few were successful. Honestly, I would never expect those particular apps to grow so much. But if I didn’t try, I’d never know.

On the other side, over 10 apps that I’ve built were a waste of time. That’s why I always rush to build an MVP as fast as possible to save time. So yeah, don’t be a perfect programmer. Skip clean code architecture, and forget about unit tests. Just ship it.

Keep in mind that this pattern is not the only way to success; it’s like throwing darts. The more darts you throw, the higher the chance that you will hit something.

I know some will come here and say “yeah, but you need to put enough effort into one product to provide value to users.”

And this is true as well. But it’s a riskier approach, especially in the highly competitive landscape of the worldwide internet.

By throwing more darts, you have a higher chance to learn. Perhaps you take this learning and pivot? Perhaps, you will discover a new market and find an even better opportunity?

You never know.