Are there any companies or people you gain inspiration from?
Building something successful is hard. Having someone or something to look up to or learn from has helped me stay focused and often times given me an extra boost on days I feel like I'm not in my groove
Are there any people or companies you look up to or have learned from that have helped you along your journey?
Some things/names that come into mind when I ask myself this question are people like Lex Fridman, Naval Ravikant, Kevin Hart, Tom Bilyeu, Ryan Holiday, David Goggins, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and companies like comma.ai, Tesla, SpaceX, Quest Nutrition, Bare Performance Nutrition, Renaissance Technologies
I'm 100% leaving some good ones out, but I love knowing how others before me have gone about doing things. It's super interesting to me and I've learned a ton just by listening to or reading about others' successes and failures. I nerd out on this stuff
I would love to hear what or who has had an impact on you and shaped the way you've approached building something for yourself!
One thing I have understood, having gone through this educational journey a few years ago, is to avoid "aiming too high" when looking for advisors. Musk and Jobs have done great things, but their advice won't necessarily have any meaningful impact on your indie hacker journey.
If you want to build trillion-dollar companies, focus on them, by all means. But if you want to build a business that can level up your life in a controlled, non-crazy, and self-determined way, look at other indie hackers.
On Twitter, that means following and interacting with other indie hackers instead of the big names. Pieter Levels has an amazing(ly curated) Build-in-Public list full of indie hackers sharing their journey. I follow this list, and I think I follow each founder on there as well. The things they talk about are 100% useful for me as a founder and indie hacker. They're all a few steps ahead or behind each other, so it's both educational and a way for me to share my experiences.
We learn from each other, particularly in this community. And that has shaped my journey significantly. It's why I am writing and recording so much, every week. Because people in our little corner of the internet WANT to learn and teach. And that is just plain amazing.
I'll definitely check out Levels' list! Sounds like a great resource
I also wanted to add a bit of clarification about some of the things/names I mentioned and push back a bit on "aiming too high". I said those names not because I have any intention or desire of building a trillion dollar company, but because I have learned something from each one of them that has helped me on my indie hacker journey thus far. I suppose I should've added the caveat that I gain inspiration more so from the way they most of them built rather than what they built.
I know there is tremendous value in following other indie hackers and people on similar paths, but for me it sometimes hurts more than help. I'll get sucked into unhealthy comparison or find myself doing things just because it worked for someone else and not because I think it's what's right. Not at all saying there isn't value in following other IHers, because there is, but for me balance is paramount.
What works for me isn't going to work the same for anybody else. For me drawing inspiration from the big names has been a super big help. Again, not that I'm setting out to try and build the next Apple but because I've learned something small from them that I've applied to what I've built. I think Job's fascination with calligraphy is really interesting and pushed me to look at UI though a different lens than I would've had I not known about that. For me that's often more helpful than looking up design tips from another person on here. Following the big names helps me follow my own identity and style when building.
Just my .02, everyone is different! Just like you said, the people on this side of the internet are awesome and all trying to do cool things, regardless of where they draw inspiration from
Sure.
These are just a few of the people I get inspiration from. They're all offering great advice that's relatively easy to implement.
Hope you find some inspiration from them too. :-)
Thanks for the mention here Karsten - I appreciate you!
I'll have to check out Donald Miller, I'm always interested in a good book recommendation!
Thank you, that's very kind of you.