

How shipping saved my life - ahoyhere
http://yearofhustle.com/amy

======
davidw
> And I don't mean saved my life in a hand-wavy, metaphysical way, like "Punk
> rock saved my life" or "Martha Stewart Every Day Living saved my life".

Being the literal-minded computer sort I am, I was waiting for the punch line,
and it's kind of disappointing:

> Shipping my own projects saved my creative life.

Which is a bit annoying, because the rest of it seems like good enough advice.

~~~
ibsulon
I was waiting to hear that she got lost and if a poor soul hadn't heard of her
because of a webapp she had created, they wouldn't have brought her in when
her car broke down, saving her from death by exposure.

~~~
ahoyhere
I took out the vivid descriptions of personal misery because I thought they
were too much of a downer.

No little-matchgirl snow, though.

The point is, it's like having an entirely new life. Was that unclear?

~~~
GavinB
_And I don't mean saved my life in a hand-wavy, metaphysical way, like "Punk
rock saved my life" or "Martha Stewart Every Day Living saved my life". This
is not your typical vague Tomato Soup for the Soft-Seller's Soul crap—I can
name dates and numbers._

This bit promises a literally life saving--i.e. you would be dead otherwise.
The rest of the post is great, but opening with this is a big distraction
since the post turns out to be exactly what you promise it isn't.

~~~
ahoyhere
"The Clash totally like, spoke to me, man." "My new chair rail really brings
the room together!"

vs

"My life has been completely transformed from the inside out and PS, I don't
hate it any more"

Don't seem the same to me.

~~~
ibsulon
Please don't underestimate the power of music to change a life. A Perfect
Circle's "Judith" was a song that came out as I was leaving an abusive
religious group. That, and other music, was part of a major transition in my
life, allowing myself to reprogram innate beliefs of my unworthiness as an
individual, among other things.

Leaving that religious group, quite literally, saved my life as I was on a
track to suicide. Punk music did the same to many in that generation.

~~~
lionhearted
> A Perfect Circle's "Judith" was a song that came out as I was leaving an
> abusive religious group.

May I recommend the song "Wings for Marie, part 2" by Tool? The lead singer of
Tool and A Perfect Circle is the same fellow, and it's a song with a similar
theme. I don't listen to much Tool any more, but I did check out the new album
a couple years ago as I was a fan when I was younger. Not as good as Lateralus
or Aenima in my opinion, but the track Wings part 2 was really really good.

[http://www.metrolyrics.com/10000-days-wings-part-2-lyrics-
to...](http://www.metrolyrics.com/10000-days-wings-part-2-lyrics-tool.html)

To listen (it's a long song, so in two parts):

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg5LeuJA8UE>

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGFy_CwA5hk>

~~~
ibsulon
Yeah, but 10,000 days came out years later. :) I was at the Coachella concert
days before it was officially released. (Not to mention the Phoenix concert
where he was hit by a water bottle thrown from off stage.)

------
teej
Hats off to Amy Hoy for getting me to read a sales letter from top to bottom
and enjoying it. Year of hustle indeed.

~~~
ahoyhere
Thank you, sir!

I believe that the best sales material is educational and practically stands
alone. Hasn't steered me wrong yet.

~~~
queensnake
I liked it too, but it was still bait-and-switch. Boo to you.

------
jimbokun
"For the 12-week course, workbooks & other printables, teleconfs and support,
you'll pay only $500."

I don't know whether the specific course she is selling is any good or not,
but I'm fascinated by the possibility that little courses like this could
eventually be the future of higher education.

I'm taking the Dave Ramsey financial course right now, and the experience
compares favorably to university style instruction. People local to you
congregate in one place each week to watch a video of Dave presenting a topic,
break into groups after words to discuss the topic of the video, and then
there's homework to do before the next class meets, along with a book and
other materials, and more content on his web site. All for about a hundred
bucks.

When I see people from the class outside the classroom, suddenly it's easy to
talk about money, something that would otherwise be socially inappropriate.

Anyhow, is picking and choosing from courses like this a viable way to educate
yourself? Are there subjects for which it wouldn't work? What does a
university really add over these kinds of courses?

~~~
100k
University adds:

* it forces you to take classes that are good for you but you probably wouldn't take on your own

* social connections

* space to experiment on who you are as a person

* chance to get laid

~~~
ajam
I was socially anxious in school so I didn't really experience that much of
the last three.

regarding the first one, it's almost a tautology that you are being habituated
into doing things you are ambivalent about for reasons you may not fully
understand. perfect practice for the day job you get after graduating, really.

on the other hand, my self-actualized programmer friend - who never went to
school and works on his own projects - occasionally has a tinge of insecurity
because he never took a compiler class.

------
100k
Shipping is awesome, and if you don't ship you've got nothing.

But to think your first product/site/whatever is going to give you creative
freedom...I think that's selection bias. I've shipped a lot of mini-sites
(mostly for my own amusement) and the traffic is very low and has not brought
me any sort of fame.

Sure, maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I would say 9 out of 10 projects you
create are not going to become popular or get you renowned.

That doesn't make it not worth doing. I've learned something new from every
new project I've built and every person I've worked with. But it also hasn't
benefited me financially.

~~~
ahoyhere
Twistori didn't give me creative freedom and, as I said, it earned me no money
directly. (Despite the fact that, nearly 3 years after launch, in the last 90
days people spent an accumulated 57 years on the site.)

I describe what it really did for me, which LED to the creative freedom.

If you want your projects to do something for you financially, and they're
not, then you should tackle that as a project in and of itself.

~~~
100k
"I describe what it really did for me, which LED to the creative freedom."

That is, selection bias.

I think you're understating the amount of work it took you to get to the point
where you could launch Twistori and have it be a success. You put in years of
effort as a blogger, speaker, and "thought leader".

I really admire how you've built and audience and leveraged it to build a
viable lifestyle, but you can't teach that in a 12 week class.

~~~
ahoyhere
Twistori's success had pretty much nothing to do with it. It was just that I
did it. It didn't need to have the response it did. I didn't start getting the
consulting work til >9 mos later, which was well after I realized what a
fundamental change I'd just made.

I did calculatedly create something that would capture the zeitgeist, and that
is certainly a skill you can teach. Tho that's not what the course is about.

What you _can_ teach in a 12-week course is how to identify and/or create a
money-making opportunity, begin to build an audience before you launch, the
skills to self-manage a project and get it out there to earn money.

Which is, coincidentally, what it's about.

If you want to read it as being about "Twistori was successful and that
changed my life," I can't stop you. But what it's actually about was "I
shipped something on my very own and THAT changed my life."

~~~
wallflower
Congratulations on making the leap from consulting to products to a dynamic
combo (products + consulting)!

The story of Twistori is amazing. Eureka moment in the bathtub and design/code
immediately thereafter.

<http://slash7.com/2008/04/29/twistori-i/>

Her personal experience with Twistori being an attractor for consulting
projects jibes with the iPhone developers I know who don't make a lot of money
from their well-crafted iPhone apps but make the bulk of their revenue from
consulting on iPhone app development for companies.

------
tom_ilsinszki
"When you do your own thing, you give others inspiration and permission to do
their own thing." - I once read in a psychology book, that a lot of us don't
get permission from our parents to do specific things. Giving a person
permission to do something they desire can indeed be life changing, so in a
way (although not literally), shipping did save her life...

------
aw3c2
Super bad to read thanks to letter-spacing: -1px;

Oh why...

~~~
araneae
I think her design problems are pervasive...

This is what twistori looks like for me: <http://imgur.com/D920M.png>

~~~
ahoyhere
I'm sorry that you browse on a screen smaller than 620x480.

~~~
incomethax
With the emergence of decent smartphone web browsers and netbooks, it really
shouldn't be all that surprising.

~~~
ahoyhere
The iPhone handles Twistori.com perfectly out of the box.

Can't say I give two hoots about the alternatives.

~~~
araneae
If you don't give two hoots, why are are so defensive? Calm down, woman.

~~~
ahoyhere
It's not really about defensiveness (which, no doubt, sounds defensive) --
it's about philosophy. If I were a delicate flower, I wouldn't be able to bear
posting my own articles on HN.

Spreading my philosophy, on the other hand, is something I find worth doing.
Also, it made me chuckle. ;)

------
noonespecial
To those who think "saved my life" was overly dramatic, try to remember that
you were reading a sales flier, not a deep introspective blog post. The fact
that it came across very much as such a blog post (because it partly was) is
part of the brilliance, but also means that you might take the life saving
part a little more literally than the "the _best cola ever_ " advertising vibe
that it maybe should have had.

That was a top shelf ad/promotion/infomercial Amy. Hats off.

~~~
ahoyhere
Thank you.

I still feel like my life was saved. :)

If you'd met me before, you would have seen what I meant. I was utterly
miserable, in the way that you can only be when you are trapped by your own
great success and therefore don't even think escape is a rational option. Plus
I always believed I was too much of a lazy asshole to ever be able to work for
myself, really.

Making my own thing was absolutely a life-saving event for me.

------
callmeed
_"I spent a single day getting over my mopey co-dependence on clients"_

The end result, as best I can tell, is simply more consulting work. So,
"shipping" is simply a break from clients with the side-effect of bringing
more in.

If I was a potential client, that line above would really turn me off.

~~~
ahoyhere
You missed the part where I announced that I quit consulting and am living off
the money made from:

1x SaaS web app, 1x self-published ebook, 2x 1-day in-person training
workshops, 1x 2-day in-person training workshop (corporate training - yeehaw!

Plus, of course, this course, which is part of a plan. I have three other web
apps in various states of completion, as well as the plans for another
technical info product.

And I worked with a friend to ship a Mac app, although it's not making either
of us any money. The other stuff has made a lot.

I also earned money with a 3-hour teleconference on the lessons I've learned
from my "year of hustle"

That, my friend, is why it was called Year of Hustle.

PS -- even if I were still doing client work, that'd be a good thing. Being
co-dependent sucks for BOTH parties to a relationship. Everybody wants to date
the driven person who does for themselves - and wants to hire them, too.

------
Estragon
After reading the top page of yearofhustle.com, I am still far too uncertain
about what you're offering to commit $500 to it. I think you need to make the
course description more precise.

~~~
ahoyhere
Thanks for the feedback.

The actual sales part is really tailored to the audience I already have, many
of whom have seen the educational stuff I create (the book, the cheat sheets,
the blog posts). I figure the course will be at least 85%+ made up of them.
I've already sold 25/50 seats.

If you have any specific info I could provide that would clarify it for your
fresh pair of eyes, I'd appreciate it!

------
Poiesis
Title could potentially be improved to "How shipping _a product_ saved my
life". I figured he was getting a liver or pacemaker on a container ship from
China.

------
awa
Ok, I stumbled upon this gem on twistify.com:
<http://www.wefeelfine.org/wefeelfine_pc.html>

Takes a few seconds to load (Java applet).

