When I was young I never had to apply for jobs. They would come and find me. Come to think of it, that's how it still works today, with a difference. Now the jobs are very brief. I get a phone call and quickly respond, get paid OK. Back then I would work for a year or so after each phone call. Job applications? Sure, done dozens of them. Results? Nil. The only way I have ever gotten decent jobs was by knowing someone who knew someone offering a job, or by walking in the door and speaking with the owner about why I want to work for him/her.
Keep going! You can't sell something you don't believe in! But don't try to make the v2.0 version before launching. Make sure v1 is something your identified customers will want and shove it out the door.
Reminds me of a client who wanted to know why the program took so long. "I mean, it's all just 1's and 0's, right? he said. I think he was serious, too!
Learn to type faster! I went from 35 wpm to over 100 in just over a year of 4-hrs-a-day practice. I have a USB foot pedal so I can start and stop, rewind and fast-forward mp3 recordings. (It would be better if I could do this with speech command - my foot gets tired) Programs to alter the speed of playback typically suffer from pitch alteration.
I don't see a need for a co-host. I used to produce a half-hour weekly program in a similar interview format. Changing hosts mid-stream would have seemed artificial and disturbing.
I don't have a general answer, but in my case it really does come from life experience. Let me give you an example, using one of my current projects. I met two friends (about a month ago) for a brewski. Turns out they are golfers. We went to Harding driving range and Lincoln golf course. When we were on the 2nd hole at Lincoln it occurred to me that there are people who would probably like a photo survey of the local golf courses. We have roughly 15,000,000 visitors a year here. So now I'm building an iPhone app that will help tourists plan their golfing forays.
I see opportunities everywhere I look. And so far, I have not had a failure. Not all ideas are reachable, but there are always many that require no investment other than my time and energy. (and always remember: Time is non-renewable. Budget your time very carefully so it is profitable)
I think the most valuable lesson I've learned is that being successful in business is not based on how much money you have. It is much more based on how you allocate your resources. Time is the most important one, because it is non-renewable.
Thank you for your kind words. Yes! That sounds fun. You'll get an email from me soon. btw, I am happy to talk about anything I am currently working on, with one single exception (because it is the first worldwide). Competition is a good thing, and we learn from each other. I'm a very agile developer and am not the slightest bit concerned about talking about what I'm doing. If I do it might bring new customers. And in the final analysis, there is very little we can do that is ground-breaking in concept. It is the execution that distinguishes companies. For example, honesty and prompt payment appear to be in short supply. So even if we're in a highly competitive market we can always rise above the middle of the bell curve.
Good point. Maybe you can see by the <p> tags that HN removed the formatting I attempted. I agree it would look better if they had retained my intended presentation.