Hey, what's up?
John Sonmez here from simpleprogrammer.com.
I got a question about, "Should I find a side partner for a side project?"
That's a lot different than the question of "Should I find a side partner for a project?"
A side partner is a different thing.
We'll talk about that later.
All right, so the question is—the second question.
This must have been a long email that I cut.
The second question considering side projects, "I was wondering if I should find someone
with whom I could do a project together as I believe that would be more motivating.
However, from my friends and former course mates, no one seems to be too interested.
I was trying online, but most of those communities are quite small, so it's very difficult to
find anybody.
And FounderDating seems to be too serious.
I don’t want to create a startup right away.
So I thought maybe your community is large enough, there are like-minded people and you
could set up a forum for us, where we could also be a sort of a "project fair" where we
could discuss ideas, give feedback and find teammates."
So I'm not going to set up a forum right now, but I will consider that.
I think that's a decent idea.
I want to talk about the idea of "Should you find a partner for a side project" and how
you might do that and kind of the value of that.
I'm a big fan of finding a partner for a side project simply because it becomes boring to
do something by yourself and you need that kind of support and community.
I'm very fortunate in that in Simple Programmer I've brought on a partner which is Josh Earl.
He does a lot of the copywriting.
By the time you're watching this video, he might actually be a full partner in the company
where we've got an arrangement together, but I did find that I was locked in an office
by myself all the time just like recording videos and writing blogposts and I was going
a little bit crazy doing that by myself all the time.
It is nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of, to have a mission that you're—it
helped me to take things to the next level to be able to have someone that shares the
vision, that you're charging together towards.
I think that's really important and I feel like I might have given up or maybe not given
up, but I wouldn't have gotten where I am today with Simple Programmer had I not brought
on Josh as a partner.
That's just my experience with that and I've seen so many projects fail and so many people
fail because they lose momentum.
Especially, I can remember when I first started lifting weights, when I first started working
out.
One of the best things that I did was I got a weightlifting partner, and that kept me
motivated and we kept each other motivated because sometimes one of us wouldn’t want
to go to the gym, but you got to show up because the other guy is there at 5 AM waiting for
you so you got to go, right?
That's how it works with side projects as well, I think, is that if you can find someone
dedicated.
Now, here's the key and it's the same key that I said with the gym, was that you got
to find someone dedicated that's actually going to follow through and show up, because
a lot of—majority of people if you got a weightlifting partner, they're not going to
be dependable and they're not going to show up.
I found—I've had different weightlifting partners as I've been lifting and I have always
found people that were like as committed as I was that are at least as close to as committed
as I was.
I know they're going to show up and they're not going to flake out on me because they
could actually, by being more of a flake, make me more of a flake and make me miss workouts
and fail.
You got to have someone that's going to back you up that's sort of at that level, and I
think that's where a lot of people that try to bring on partners into side projects fail
is they have these ideas and no one is really committed to it.
You got to be committed to it and you got to find someone else who is committed to it.
If your friends just think, "Oh, it would be kind of cool to make a game," no.
Bullshit.
It wouldn't be kind of cool to make a game like it would be cool if we're going to devote
4 hours every day to making a game and we're both going to commit to this.
That would be cool because then you'll actually make a game and you won't just bullshit all
the time and never accomplish anything, right?
There's a real big value in becoming a finisher.
I did this blogpost a while back on becoming a finisher.
It was a life changer for me.
Read this blogpost but if you start this project, you want to finish it.
I think there's a lot of value in it.
If you can't find a partner for a side project, just do it yourself or start it yourself.
You can always bring someone on later when it has momentum.
I know that one of the things like—very often I will get invited to side projects
that people were "starting," but they had so little momentum that I just didn’t trust
that they were actually going to follow through and do something, so I never joined them.
I have actually helped some people with side projects that have already gotten things going
and then I could jump in and help out, and I could see that they're actually dedicated.
That will also help you as well if you're looking for serious partners, is that if you
already have some momentum going.
Yeah, I don’t know of any really good sites that—I think the Founder Partner or FounderDating,
I think the problem with that is that most of those people are looking for big funding
startup, venture capital money.
They want to do the big startup thing and that's cool, but it doesn’t sound like what
you want to—you just want to do a side project.
Yeah.
I would say that either it will be helpful if you can find a partner, but either find
a partner that's going to be committed or just do it yourself.
Whatever you do, don't get flaked.
If you bring flakes on, it's going to make you flake and the whole thing is going to
be bad and it's just going to be a waste of your time and frustration.
I've done it too many times.
So there.
I hope that helps you and I hope you're able to find a partner.
If you want to coordinate on this video and find some partners for some side projects,
leave some comments below.
You know you guys can coordinate and I'll help facilitate that as I can.
Maybe I'll do a forum or something.
I mean if you really want that like thumbs up this video and leave a comment and say,
"Damn it, John.
Make a damn forum."
We'll see.
I can't make any promises, but if I get enough momentum then maybe I'll do it.
All right.
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A lot of people just like you that are motivated that want to improve their lives and want
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Join if you haven't already.
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Take care.