Why do I quit a full-time job & become an indie maker?

I've been working like most of you guys as a regular developer for a while. At first it was quite difficult to find my first job after uni because it was a small city with limited opportunities but I made it. I was so glad when I got that job, I was excited. It was a junior rails position with unnoticeable salary but I didn't give a fuck. I just wanted to deep dive into "real programming" 😂

Time went by, I got some experience and understood that I'm really into creating stuff. I mean I love build things from scratch and use it afterwards on a regular basis. Not only software but also stuff in general. For example I soldered an amplifier for my 2 Yamaha speakers and listened all my music through it, it was fun.

During the work I improved my hard and soft skills significantly. I coded faster, I thought faster, I took part in different activities like spring plannings & grooming. But I always had that feeling like I do something non-important, useless. It wasn't because of the project or people around, it was something deep inside me. I don't like routine, it drives me crazy. So I started building side projects for myself, pet projects. I enjoyed building staff where I decide what to do and when and I didn't have this feeling while working on company's projects. I don't know how it works, probably it's because I love freedom or smth.

I switched many jobs and after some time I came across the idea that I don't want to be involved in any product company as a full-time employee. However I like helping people in solving theirs problems. So I quit and started traveling. I had some money I saved before for the first time, but also I was looking for any part-time gigs. I realized I didn't need that much money to feel myself on a decent level of life, I didn't need many things to have. But on the opposite side of this coin you have a lot of time for yourself, free time. You can do whatever you want working only 2-4 hours a day. You're free after that. There are so many things to do in our crazy world, so many beautiful places to visit, so many people to meet. Don't put it off, enjoy your fckn' life!

Entrepreneur way of thinking

When you understand that everything depends only on you, you become more proactive and goal-oriented. If you didn't find any clients you wouldn't get any money. Simple as that. If you created a side project and you didn't think about marketing you fucked up. I really believe that freelance way of life is much more productive than classic full-time job. Work for yourself don't work for companies. I'm from Eastern Europe and most of people there don't understand it unfortunately. One thing I'd like to say: it's not laziness. I mean I would work all day on my own project if needed but I don't want to make rich someone else. Why would I want to do it?😂

Indie making

An indie maker is an independent creator. They build projects with their own resources, often without funding, taking care of all aspects: development, design, marketing...

I always feel like I'm the kind of person who does everything by myself. I'm a good coder, I have taste in design, I understand core concepts of marketing. And I don't want to depend on somebody. This perfectly suits me. Thanks to Twitter I found a lot of people with the same mindset, that's how I understand I'm not alone. People are building staff, sometimes it's a crap sometimes it's a gem, but they're still crafting. This motivates me!

I'm not really an indie-maker now because I've earned almost nothing from my side projects but I'll keep going. For example I've built Shapper, an analytics tool for Shopify apps market. It had only 10 users and I got around 50$ from subscriptions but I absolutely enjoy the feeling when someone pays you for YOUR service or tool.

Bottom line

I think I've said enough. I described the picture of my world, at least at the current moment and I think it won't change in the nearest future. I'll keep grinding, keep building stuff trying to get rich, haha. I've got a big milestone -- 10k$ MRR from my side projects. It's not that easy btw, but it is what it is

Stay tuned 📡