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Comment by vmception | Hacker News Reader

I would ignore most of this advice and simplify it this way:

Act Immediately

Get an influencer

All the rest of OP's journey doesn't really matter.

My newest venture this summer did 7 figures after I got motivated by watching Hamilton, this was also a week long period of sales, which came after a 2 week long period of idea and building hype. It definitely came down to doing something very trendy and having people know about it, and there is nothing organic in that process. I don't think the same venture could do that now already. It would have to be new trendy things.

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I think "Publish Often" is also an important part of OP's success. Had they not practiced making custom icons since 2013, they probably would not have been ready to capitalize on the one time they got buzz.

I don't.

I've hired people on fiverr and tapped development teams I've worked with before to deliver quickly.

"Had I not have already vetted that development team I wouldn't have been ready to capitalize so quickly. Had I not practiced making static websites. Had I not practiced tying SSL to domain names so that people take me seriously."

I'm not diminishing OP's skill, I am diminishing the message and pointing out which parts are repeatable. This is prosperity preaching (being rewarded for prior sacrifices because of those prior sacrifices) and wasting everyone's energy if they actually believe that and approach life this way. Unsubscribe to that logic and you still have execute quickly + make sure people know about it.

I appreciate this view. The story our culture tells us of reward being proportional to sacrifice is well entrenched and of course a complete fantasy.

> This is prosperity preaching (being rewarded for prior sacrifices because of those prior sacrifices)

But don't those prior experiences grow your skill to a degree?

An influencer pushing your version of a product is a greater reason for prosperity than any merit of the product. That's the only point.

You are grasping at straws to support traf's view of the events.

Yes, doing something in the past helps you do something in the future. No, thats not the reason traf's work went viral.

That's not the only point. You are confusing necessary and sufficient conditions. Being able to do the thing that needs to be done at the right time is a a necessary condition for this success. It's definitely not sufficient condition as you rightly point out. You note that you use fiverr and development teams you've worked with before to deliver quickly. Without that you have nothing to deliver or it is beat in the market by the time you figure out how to make it. An influencer isn't going to magically create products for you.

Exactly. And without having made things, shared and built an audience, he would have been broadcasting into a void. Then there "influencer" would have never been part of the equation.

Is there some "luck" in that? Of course. But that bit of luck does not happen in a vacuum.

You're hitting the nail on the head but people can't bring themselves to accept you're right.

Yes the OP lovingly crafted his skills over a period of several years, but let's face it, his skills are commodities and you too could have achieved his success if you took a shortcut to hire someone to produce an icon pack quickly and professionally and then partnered with an influencer to sell the productized version of it.

Probably 94% of the success here is due to the influencer's exposure. The moral of the story is become good friends with influencers in relevant industries and be ready to act quickly on new business ideas, and keep access to cash to invest in whatever is needed.

> "Publish Often" is also an important part of OP's success

100% this, I sell audio plugins and every time I release a new product there is a huge uptick in sales, and not just from existing users.

Where do you sell these audio plugins and for what daw

I was similarly motivated after reading Chernow's biography of Hamilton. Reading about how he wrote his 51 essays for the Federalist Papers in such a short time, often publishing one or more per week... that kind of intellectual energy really blew me away.

same experiences here. timing and big scale. trends and influencers are powerful.

Hamilton the 2020 movie?

Yes, I find it very motivational

I'm a little confused, what did you actually sell? If its not a secret of course.

I always find it odd when people ask this. If someone is selling something and you ask them what it is and they refuse to tell you... what does that even mean?

Primarily that I opted out of tying my identity and screename here to that product.

But yep, if I didn't specify then it should be pretty clear I wasn't going to specify.

To their credit, sometimes it is still worth asking, like instead of me being seen as shilling in my first post, I could just be responding to someone and mention the product then.

Spot on analysis that I wasn't going to specify though.

totally understand you don't want to specify, but could you say what kind of product it was (ie mobile app, saas, udemy thing, crypto...etc)?

just asking as someone curious about this type of thing

You're coming across as creepy right now dude. You don't need to know, stop pestering them.

I asked a single question and said I was just curious and didn't need specification lol.

why go out of your way to spread negativity?

Because I was once a five year old who didn't know how to stop when someone told me no, and it brings back shameful memories when I see the same behavior from grown men.

again I asked one question. I was only a little bit curious because op's experience sounds a lot like what my friends and I did when the iOS app store first came out in college, so I was just wondering what platform people were having that experience on these days.

I see you are committed to being angry online so I won't stop you from following your passion, but I hope you see eventually that it is strange behavior.

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