[Nair0]

And to say about myself, I worked as a developer for about 4 years, reached a position higher than peers my age and experience level usually reach, so it gave me confidence that I can actually learn and progress.

Some time ago I started seeing people bragging about how they made millions after starting their own thing. I knew that is probably not real, or at least not common, but I live in a country with smaller cost of living so for me even something like 1k a month would be enough to get by, I thought at least that might be more realistic.

Around 5 months ago I got fed up with my job. I was depressed and burnt out, felt stuck and as if I made no progress in a while. So I decided to give it a try. Worked on my own thing for a couple of months, decided I can't keep doing both so quit my job with about 2 years worth of savings and started working solo.

Currently nothing is actually making me money, and I'm getting a bit tired, but I still feel so much better than I was at my old job. I'm here asking this because it feels like people here are a lot more 'genuine' and might actually give better advice or more honest stories, so I'm curious

[marekful]

What do you expect to achieve as a business? Assuming you live in a country with fractional reserve banking, free market and "wild west" capitalism, your options are dire. Be selfish, ruthless, lack all empathy, be corrupt, cheat and steal. You cheat more you win more. Are you great at exploiting other people and looking the other way? How about being dishonest and deceitful? Then you have excellent prospects. Ah, wait, you want a decent _and_ honest business that self sustains and doesn't kneel to disgraceful, corrupt giants? Good luck with that.

[Nair0]

Ah I get what you're saying, but I feel like this is a bit of a dark take on the world. I know (relatively) rich people that are some of the kindest people I met.

But I do agree that it's much easier to get rich by being corrupt and stealing, the shortest path is and will always be by cheating.

That being said, there are plenty of counter examples out there, of people that built stuff out of love and reached financial freedom, not billions of dollars, but enough to buy a home and live with their family, by doing innocent stuff. I'm thinking about indie games, or small shops, learning apps, healthcare focused apps. Do you get an advantage by lying and marketing the "wrong" people? Sure. Do you have to do it to actually succeed? I don't think so

But I do not disagree with you completely, I think this is just a black and white vision when in the real world there are just many shades of gray. You will never be a completely innocent person and you will never be a completely evil person, it is just impossible.