Thanks for reading and for the kind words!
>Have you always been so disciplined in life? If not, how did you improve it?
No, I was a lot less disciplined when I was younger. I remember as a teen trying to learn Java several times and always getting bored a day or two in. I was a good student, but I would procrastinate work and distract myself while working.
I probably became more disciplined in my twenties, but I unfortunately don't think it was something I tried to do as much as it just happened.
One thing I think helped was protecting my focus more. I used to hop between different tasks a lot and constantly check social media or email if I had a moment of downtime or boredom, so I became more aggressive at stopping that.[0]
I also found the book Deep Work by Cal Newport to be helpful in staying more focused.[1]
>As you shared here (https://mtlynch.io/solo-developer-year-1/), doubts are natural when you haven't succeeded yet; how did you keep going? Did you ever come close to giving up and going back to corporate America?
I went into it with the expectation that it might take 3-5 years for me to find a successful business, so I think that was helpful. I've spoken to other founders who feel disappointed that nothing they're doing is working because they were expecting success to come quickly.
I definitely did worry that I wasn't cut out for being a founder and that my skills made a lot more sense for a big tech employee. The thing I found comforting was reading stories and listening to podcast interviews with other founders where they talked about how many failures they had before they landed on the right business.
I never came close to going back to a corporate job because I knew I had enough savings to last me, but if my financial situation had been different, I might have given up before I landed on something that worked.
>I believe you have a partner; how did this affect your relationship with your partner?
There are lots of effects in different directions. Me not having a regular job means that my income is less consistent and certain, and she absorbs some of the risks I take. I also feel like I'm not a good partner when I'm stressed a lot about work, and so part of my motivation in de-stressing the business has been to be a better partner in my personal relationship.
>Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?
I wish I'd done educational products ("info products") earlier. They're like a microcosm of the experience of launching a product because you have to find customers, pitch to them effectively, and then deliver something they'll want. Like you can do that whole cycle in a month, whereas it would probably take 3-10x that long to do it with a SaaS. I made my first course right as TinyPilot was getting traction, and that course made more than anything I'd done in the previous three years.[2]
[0] https://mtlynch.io/eliminate-distractions/
[1] https://mtlynch.io/book-reports/deep-work/
[2] https://mtlynch.io/solo-developer-year-4/#hit-the-front-page...