I admit it, my success involves luck
My girlfriend landed a great job, only it was 2 hours away.
I quit my job and we moved into our first apartment.
I struggled to find a job quick enough, maybe because I day-dreamed about starting a business again. Again, as in, a decade earlier I co-founded an online puzzle business that lasted 2 years before I called it quits.
This time I didn’t live with my parents and needed a decent income to survive.
I decided to take on clients offering the most valuable skills I processed: web design and graphic design.
Day 1
Day 1 didn’t look different from day 100, they were clientless. The only difference was that I was confident on day 1.
I experimented with ways to land clients. My social media and blog efforts didn’t result in any leads. I found online freelance marketplaces overcrowded. My cold outreach to local companies didn’t get any responses. Networking started working, but at a snail's pace.
Panicked, I decided to build a freebie resource to get leads. Six weeks later, I was learning that promoting a product can be just as difficult as landing clients.
BUT, I got lucky. My Product Hunt launch went well, helping me generate initial traffic, but not leads as intended. I decided to monetize the site with a paid version of the product and sales started trickling in.
Luck is being ready at the right time
I did a few things to get lucky:
- Started business with minimal risk
- Developed skills
- Experimented heavily
- Launched an MVP (and more)
- Played long-term game
Let me explain what I mean by each:
Started business with minimal risk
I was lucky that I had previous experience starting businesses, albeit failures, because it pushed me to pursue a safer model centered around my skills where I only needed a handful of clients to succeed.
Developed skills
I was lucky to land a few initial clients. I was able to deliver exceptional work because I spent time honing my craft as a web and graphic designer. I didn’t instantly find success, but word of mouth made sales easier overtime.
Experimented heavily
I got lucky by trying out many marketing avenues, evaluating which methods worked best. I was extra lucky that one of my traffic generating ideas became something more valuable: my main product (years later).
Launched an MVP (and more)
I got lucky because I was able to launch quickly and get a warm reception. Just launching was promising because I invested months into past projects that never saw the light of day. My MVP wasn’t monetized, but because I got better-than-expected interest, I quickly launched a paid upgrade.
Played long-term game
Lastly, I’m lucky I thought about the future. It’s easy to obsess about quick growth when your business isn’t profitable. I grew slowly by taking on clients to keep the lights on and investing unpaid time into side-projects. Over the 4.5 years I've been self-employed, I've been able to invest more and more time into my best side project, and be choosier about which clients I take on. A win-win.
Luck requires taking chances
It’s easy to read about my trajectory and focus on what went my way over what didn’t. However, the real story is that I took chance after chance to get lucky.
For all the marketing channels I tried for my web design business, networking is the only one that worked—and it did so slowly. It’s lucky that I created a side-project that’s working, but it wasn’t the obvious way forward early on.
At the time I put my focus elsewhere and launched other projects that all failed to reach anywhere near the same level of success. It was tough to let go of those newer projects. But I did.
A year ago I returned to put new energy into this early side-project, as it had the most promise.
I’ve been able to reinvigorate growth, from $700 (4/2021) to $1250 MRR (4/2022), and know it was the right call. I don’t have it all figured out, but I finally have more confidence than I had back on day 1.
P.s. my girlfriend and I are still together, only she is now my wife.
P.s.s. you can catch me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MattVisiwig
Great Story Matt. I wish more people shared these kinds of wins. The ones that are less flashy but show growth and maturity when faced with the challenges of life.
Wish you all the best! Steady wins the race ;-)
Thanks Alex, that means a lot.
It's tough using the word success, as the stories that typically get the attention are founders who earn a ridiculous amount.
Here I am proud that I have enough traction that I can stay self-employed, despite still earning less than when I had a fulltime 9-5.
I love how you break down your "luck". It screams preparedness to me and removes the elusiveness from getting lucky.
Thanks Auburn! Yeah, you do everything you can to catch a win here and there. It doesn't work every time, but the more you put yourself out there, the more of a shot you have catching a break.
Love this! Sometimes I remind myself of Ben Franklin's quote: "Diligence is the mother of good luck."
As you allude to, you've created your luck over the years and that's as much a testament to your dedication as it is your good fortune. I feel like this sort of humility is often missing in founders' circles.
Just curious Matt - would've you have done anything differently? Were there any drawbacks from this approach?
That's tough to say because, I know what I know because of my past experiences.
I should have gone all in with networking, but I only attended a few events here and there.
My first product SVGBG had a little success and I decided to create more micro products. Most ideas shared a theme, so I created a new brand and site to build these all under. Not a bad idea, but I wish I just put them all under SVGBG... I think my efforts would have paid off better. The name (SVG Backgrounds) is the only reason I created a new brand.
Luck favours the prepared!
Concise way of looking at it Derrick :)
I love the point you made, @Visiwig!
I'd argue though that real luck is sometimes also can become crucial in one's success.
There are so many hardworking, smart and motivated people in this world, some even have better starting ground but in the end don't get their big success just because at a pivoting point things didn't work out because of the circumstances that were out of their control.
True, I was talking about good luck and never mentioned bad luck also effects the outcome. Both happen to everyone at different times and at varying degrees.
OMG, this story is so similar to mine. Love it. I might be aging myself, but I recall an Oprah Winfrey episode where she said something like, Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. I've become quite good at finding the opportunities over the years and yet still I find myself saying "gosh I'm lucky I landed that gig"...when I know luck as traditionally defined, had nothing to do with it.
Cool insight, makes me think about how luck compounds. One lucky break, even small, can put you in a better place to get more luck down the road. Like finding one good gig, helps you land better clients down the road.
100%
Congrats Matt. This reminds me of simple principle that one should have/acquire all the skillsets needed to launch the product so that they have complete control over all aspects of the product to deliver to customers at any point of time.
All the best Matt.
Agreed, but I wouldn't let missing a few skills stop you from launching a business. There is a lot of learning along the way. In fact, adaptability and ability to learn is quite important to pull off a starting a business.
Great story Matt. And congrats on getting married!
You got "lucky" by working hard, working consistently, and working patiently. It was luck you were fully prepared to capitalise on. Well done again!
Thanks Eddie, appreciate the kind words :)
I feel inspired to carry on by reading stories like yours :).
"..I took chance after chance.." This is all we need
Yep, you have a low chance of success from trying a single thing. But if you do many things, your chance compounds and something will likely work.
Make a bunch of small bets!
Thank you for the story, Matt! Like someone already mentioned, it feels like working hard definitely was behind the LUCK. Good luck with your works!
Thanks Justin, yeah there was a ton of hard work involved. But just because you work hard doesn't mean things will work out. I definitely caught a break on a few things I tried out.
Luck is always a part of the equation. Always.
Yep, so it's nice when luck is on your side.
This article resonates with me. "The only difference was that I was confident on day 1" - absolutely relatable!
Haha. Yep.
When I wrote that I laughed and then I cried :)
@Visiwig this is an awesome and really humble post.
I think whatever happens, in any situation always will have a bit of luck. But, ultimately you are behind it all my man.
Diligence is the mother of luck - someone said that once, I think. Uhm, so that’s it!
Cheers!
Thanks Adam, appreciate it :) Yea, ultimately getting lucky breaks requires a bunch of upfront work.
I’m glad that you've found your success. I can see that hardworking paid off and that gives you better chance/luck in succession 🎉
Thanks Jin! You're right, I definitely don't want to downplay the hardwork, cause having a better shot at hitting luck requires a lot of effort.
You can't create luck, but you can't get lucky unless you try over and over again.
Precisely. If you play poker a lot, odds are you'll eventually get a full house. But you have to play a lot of hands.
Congrats on making your own luck 😌
Thanks Dagobert! Feels good when things work out.
This is not luck. This is hard work, dedication, consistence and determination.
I appreciate that, as there is a lot of hard work and dedication involved. The biggest luck was the PH launch: I had no following but got product #4 of the day and that helped me get on some prominent websites in my industry. I still benefit from the SEO.
Getting on top of PH is not about luck. It is about preparing a good launch, good writing, good product, etc.
I think every success story involves a little luck. But still you have to put your work in every day.
Yep, not putting in the work after your good fortune is a great way to let your luck go to waste.
Did you put enough effort into that freebie? Did you think of adding them to a newsletter to then get the sale down the road?
Initially? Yea, I put in 6 weeks of work developing the freebies (design and code). I've since added more freebies as I built up the paid collection.
I didn't do much with a newsletter off the bat, but have been growing my list over the years. That's one of the things I plan on improving as I look to take my sideproject fulltime.
I recently started my freelance lead generation business and I am planning on doing strictly sales calls, linkedin and emails.
I will hammer down email good. it has the best ROI out of all marketing channels.
email plays a huge success in business if you know how to use it.
Good luck, email is not my fav channel to work with. If you can build leads for SaaS founders, you'll do well. A lot of people here struggle with marketing and getting sales.
That's right, Saas founders are always looking for leads.
Do Saas founders like closing on their leads? I still don't know how they sell.
Do they prefer their landing page to do all the work?
Most founders struggle with marketing and sales, so I'd wager they'd prefer a magic service that made them money :)
I believe I know exactly what you mean. SEO, CRO, and other stuff.
This is an amazing story. Love it!
Hey thanks Adam :)
Congratulations. Even if you were lucky, it also seems that you provoked the luck :-)
Yea, I guess that's my point: you're bound to get lucky if you keep trying out different ideas.
Luck favours the brave and you have rightfully been brave in pulling all strings to pull success towards you.
Congratulations on the marriage and hope that your growth will shoot even higher in the coming days.
Also you gained one new follower (twitter included) with this post 😁.
All the Best Matt 👍
Thanks Arun! Well said. I definitely remember a few periods where I was a concerned, if not a little scared, about if things would pan out. So it does take a bit of bravery to get past to past all the uncertainty.
Really cool story. Luck comes to the ones that work hard! :D I think that experimenting a lot is a key component of any indie hacker journey, however, it takes a lot of time from you. One of the goals of the WBE Space is to allow bootstrappers to learn from their mistakes and successes and that way skip ahead some of the experimentings....
Thanks Tiago. Def goes both ways, in that it is helpful to learn with and from others to a point, but somethings you have to learn by doing.
For instance after the success of my first side-project, I could tell others what worked. But even knowing what worked I couldn't replicate the success for my next projects.
Sometimes what works for someone, won't work for them again... nevermind other people. There's no substitute for expiriments and experience.
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Yep and luck often can start before you even start a business: