Ask HN: Failed project you spent 15 hours/week for 5 years on?
I&#x27;ve spent the last decade doing this. Building up my savings, draining them on an idea. I put in 40+ per week for a couple years on my last startup in the real estate space. Poached some top level VP&#x27;s from the biggest firm in our country, but we ran through our capital too quickly due to too many pivots and licensing costs, I could only do no salary for so long, tough when your rent is $2.5k&#x2F;mo.<p>Now I am back at my parents place far away from any city working on my own projects in the productivity space, a space I&#x27;m intimately familiar with. Theres a few tools I&#x27;m missing from my daily arsenal that I am building now.<p>I was too greedy in my goals and while we got funded and it was fun, ultimately it turned into nothing. I was of the &quot;first to market &#x2F; build a unicorn&quot; mindset which as someone who doesn&#x27;t come from money or connections, is pretty much impossible.<p>I am now trying to build a lifestyle company with a suite of tools in the productivity space, trying to hit $10k&#x2F;mo MRR which doesn&#x27;t scare me and I know is doable, as I&#x27;ve done it before (but unfortunately sold my stake to use that money on the venture I mentioned that failed). Bad move but hindsight is 20&#x2F;20 I guess. I am focusing on building tools that solve my own problems.<p>So I&#x27;m 28 now, have under $1k in total net worth, but I am not going to stop until I am free from working a salaried job. 2 of my projects made money (sold them, dumb move, too bright-eyed and greedy), 11 of them didn&#x27;t see a dime. I have never been more depressed in my life but I refuse to believe I can&#x27;t hit at least a couple grand a month as I&#x27;ve done before, which is all I need to live my life. If only I realized this sooner. The reason I will keep doing this even if I don&#x27;t succeed is because the regret of having not tried as hard as I can will haunt me every second of every day if I concede and hop on a salary. I don&#x27;t want to spend the rest of my life on &quot;what if?&quot;, and a life of sitting behind a glass wall consuming fine things does nothing for me. I don&#x27;t want to be at the orchestra, or a restaurant, or a show. I want to be on stage, or be the chef, or be the conductor and for that you need time and money.<p>I know quite a few people with graveyard projects like this. Feel free to ask me anything, I&#x27;m an open book.