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> I'm one step away from claiming that their success is pure luck, as in "being in the right time with the right people", rather than some effort that they've put it which helped them acquire customers, and I'm simply unlucky. It's definitely a lot of luck - but don't think it's just that. Relentless drive and stellar performance in many different fields (tech, marketing, sales etc) is absolutely necessary and practically no amount of luck would help you without that. You have to keep trying to get lucky and be ready to take and milk the opportunity when it happens. The luck is not in getting customers, though, especially not in B2C. That's just about product-market fit and marketing. I know people who can consistently do it again and again with any product or service that makes sense - and of course appropriate budget. It's more about luck in B2B if you're just starting out, but again, I know people who can consistently sell anything that makes sense to the customers. They had to get lucky a lot at the beginning, but they went out, met people, pitched, and did it again and again. Do that for enough years and you build a network wide enough to just send a few messages and get clients immediately. It's just numbers - there is a likelihood you'll meet a big client ready to buy, a likelihood you'll meet an investor today. It's about putting yourself out continuously, every day, to increase the odds you get lucky. How many cold calls with prospective customers do you have daily? How often do you talk to people who might be interested on LinkedIn or other professional forums/social networks? How often do you attend in-person professional/networking events, conferences, tech talks? If you're not doing that at least few times a week, your odds are very low. |
The problem I have with vague statements such as "being consistent", is it's not a strategy. You can swim as long as you want, but if you are swimming away from shore towards a current that pulls you back, consistency does not matter.
I don't want to believe it luck as the sole factor for success, but based on what I see and my experience, it feels like it is, and I'm loosing faith. There are people who build tools that are far from being the next Facebook or ChatGPT, and they succeed. People who build in a super saturated market and they succeed.
And the entire infomercial sphere is pumping the "consistency is key" mantra, which is very vague and far from a strategy.
No disregard to other makers who built successful but simple products. I use them as an example that even if you build a simple tool, or a tool in a highly saturated market, you can succeed.
Edit: you edited your comment after I posted my reply. In regard to cold calls. I don't see anyone mention it. All successful one-man/side projects I see online who share their story, simply say they built a good product. Nobody talks about customer acquisition. And, maybe it's my problem, I don't see how cold calling/emailing will work. I get cold emails every other day, and most of them are so lame, that I don't understand how people fall into it. But maybe I'm just stupid and idealistic.