# DeveloPassion's Newsletter 29 - Entrepreneurial Journey Hello everyone! I’m [Sébastien Dubois](https://dsebastien.net), your host. You’re receiving this email because you signed up for DeveloPassion’s Newsletter. Thank you for being here with me ✨ If you enjoy this, please forward it to your friends 👍. If this email was forwarded to you, then don’t forget [to subscribe](https://dsebastien.net). ![[DeveloPassion's Newsletter Logo.png|DeveloPassion's Newsletter logo: lightbulb sprouting colorful idea nodes]] ## Welcome to the 29th edition Another week, another newsletter! I hope that you all had a great one ☀️ I honestly didn’t see the week pass by. It’s probably because I’m now living a seemingly endless day, separated by ~2-hour naps. It makes me think of [Groundhog Day](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048) for some reason… On the bright side, my wife and I have been binge-watching “Lucifer” on Netflix. It’s been fun. Especially thanks to the wonderful British accent of [Tom Ellis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Ellis_(actor)). It’s one of those shows that *has *to be watched with the original audio. Watching it in any other language than the original would be a cardinal sin (pun intended). Here in the French-speaking part of Belgium, 99.9% of TV shows are dubbed, which I’ve always found incredibly sad. The thing is that we’re right next to France, where there’s always been this tradition of dubbing everything. Most of the time, translations are far from great, jokes fall flat, and there are lip-sync issues. Those points alone have been enough to motivate me to learn English back when I was a teenager. For some reason though, many friends and relatives prefer watching everything in French. I just don’t get it. Their loss, right? Anyways, enough digression. Let’s dive in! ## Entrepreneurial journey This week I’ve been reflecting on my entrepreneurial journey, which started nearly three years ago. The lack of sleep didn’t help and I felt somewhat depressed by the lack of success so far. This pushed me to write a long thread on Twitter. Check it out if you’re curious about my journey: > I've been trying to free myself from the 9 to 5 for almost 3 years. And I'm still near square 1. I'm clearly doing it all wrong :D > — Sébastien Dubois (@dSebastien) [October 14, 2021](https://x.com/dSebastien/status/1448544802975453184) Here’s a quick summary if you’re in a hurry: - Worked on two Startup projects that didn’t go anywhere. The team was not really committed - Started freelancing back in 2019 and immediately got to 15K MRR - Worked 2000 hours on a Startup project that never launched: [[Startup failure stories - 20 months in, 2K hours spent and 200K € lost (Article)]] - Almost killed my own company in the process (I had ~1K € left in the bank and had to lend it money to keep it alive) - Wrote a book about TypeScript - Wrote 100+ articles and gained ~$1.5K - Self-published two books of my Dev Concepts series - Launched and started growing this newsletter - Started coaching fellow software developers - Started growing my audience on Twitter - Found the energy to get “back in the ring” and start working on a new Startup project Some entrepreneurs seem to be able to go from zero to a successful startup in less than six months. But here’s the thing: most of those success stories only focus on the end of the journey. Most of those people have actually struggled for a number of years before they created that last successful product. Of course, there are outliers though. Looking back at the last three years, I clearly see the mistakes I’ve made. But I’m glad I made some because it means that I’ve learned a lot as well. If we don’t make mistakes, we’re not learning. In the process, I’ve learned a lot about myself. I proved my resilience, my grit, and my motivation. I’ve learned a ton about entrepreneurship, digital products, copywriting, sales, funnels, marketing, and more. I’ve discovered what I really care about in co-founders, and I’ve met wonderful entrepreneurs from all around the world. People who might very well be key for my future successes. I consider my entrepreneurial journey as a life-long learning experience. I’m only three years in and still have tons to learn, but I’m enjoying the journey. I’m not taking huge risks because I can’t. I have three kids to feed, a loan to pay, etc. And it’s all right. It’s just slower. Reality is reality, but we can *interpret* what we experience in various ways. I could focus on the failures, and I actually do from time to time, but I prefer to re-assess my reality as follows and to look at my path through the lens of growth. So far, I’ve not failed. I’ve just been experimenting and discovered things that don’t work. I’ve explored an alternative life and went far out of my comfort zone. More importantly, I’ve exchanged big paychecks as a team/engineering lead with *a lot* more freedom. Freedom to experiment with various ideas and freedom to decide where to go next. And that’s actually key. I did succeed. I have a ton more freedom than in my previous life. When I started out, I was focused on getting at least as much money as I made as an employee. Now I realize that it doesn’t matter all that much to me. It’s much more fulfilling to wake up, knowing that I’m the captain of my boat. It may be small, but it’s *mine*. That’s why the steps I now take are all geared towards increasing my *freedom ratio*. Now that I’ve taken a bit of time to look back, I’m doing the second part of the exercise: thinking about my next moves. I’m not trying to think too far ahead though. Just like a [famous chess player](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Znosko-Borovsky) once said: [[It is not a move, even the best move that you must seek, but a realizable plan]] Anyhow; I’ll tell you more about the future once I see it more clearly 😂 ## Recent articles This week I’ve published a tutorial explaining how to create a Svelte application within a Nrwl NX workspace, and how to add Tailwind support to it: LINK: [[How to use Tailwind with Svelte and Nrwl NX (Article)]] ## How cool is that?! IDEs are evolving all the time. This week, I’ve discovered that Visual Studio Code is now available on the Web. Of course, there are limitations (e.g., no debugging, no terminals), but this is still super cool! The future is bright for online IDEs [Visual Studio Code for the Web](https://vscode.dev) Learn more about it here: https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2021/10/20/vs-code-web.aspx ## Tips of the week This week, I want to share an interesting video published a while ago by [André Casal](https://x.com/theandrecasal), a fellow Indie Hacker.  In this video, André presents a useful model for non-violent communication [How to get useful answers to your questions](https://jvns.ca/blog/2021/10/21/how-to-get-useful-answers-to-your-questions/) Techniques you can use to get useful answers. ## Books corner This week I want to share the book that I’ve just finished reading: [Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life: Train Your Brain to Get More Done in Less Time: Hammerness, Paul Graves: Amazon.com: Books](https://www.amazon.com/Organize-Your-Mind-Life-Train/dp/0373892446?tag=dsebastien00-20) This is a book about personal development, organization, productivity, and it is full of interesting facts about how our brains work. My notes: [[Organize Your Mind Organize Your Life (book)]] ## Quotes of the week [[To choose is to renounce]] [[Life is ten percent what happens to you, and ninety percent how you respond to it]] ## Links of the week Here are a few links that I found interesting this week: [Zero To Hero: Web3.0 and Solidity Development Roadmap](https://vitto.cc/web3-and-solidity-smart-contracts-development-roadmap) A solid guide to dive into Web3. [Beyond Smart](https://paulgraham.com/smart.html) Paul Graham on the gap between intelligence and ideation. [Espanso - A Privacy-first, Cross-platform Text Expander](https://espanso.org) An free, Open Source, portable and cross-platform text expander. Incredibly useful and powerful. I use it all the time to boost my productivity. If you’re interested, then I’ll write an article about this. [React Docs Beta](https://beta.reactjs.org) The new docs for React are awesome! They finally put the focus on functional components. Also, I’ve noticed that they’ve switched from Gatsby to Next.js [The headless editor framework for web artisans.](https://tiptap.dev) A really cool free and Open Source framework-agnostic Rich Text Editor engine. [136 facts every web dev should know](https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2021/100-things-every-web-developer-should-know) Tons of useful facts about Web development. [How to create a Github repository from the command line?](https://coderamrin.hashnode.dev/how-to-create-a-github-repository-from-the-command-line) Using GitHub CLI we can create a GitHub repository with just a few commands from the command line. [Dev Resources](https://devresourc.es) A collection of 1600+ resources for developers presented in curated lists. LINK: - [[How to fight against inertia to change the world (Article)]] - https://www.dsebastien.net/fighting-against-inertia// LINK: - [[Unlocking Founder Success - The Essential Guide to Journaling for Business Growth (Article)]] - https://www.dsebastien.net/how-to-approach-journaling-as-a-founder// LINK: - [[How to build a Product - From idea to code (Article)]] - https://www.dsebastien.net/2022-01-25-product-development-process// LINK: - [[Knowii Community]] - https://www.store.dsebastien.net//product/knowii-community