History had taught us that many great inventors have failed miserable before they had the success that we all know. In today’s society failures are not talked about much however I believe these stories are what separates the average person from those whom ultimately did succeed and went on to do great things in their lives and helped millions of people.
I know first had how it’s hard to succeed as an independent app developer. You work very hard to learn how to code, research ideas, spend month’s if not longer developing an app and then comes the marketing. A long process that is riddled in failure with many people out on the Internet offering their advice as well as companied suggesting you pay them a large sum of money to get your app the exposure to compete in todays dog eat dog app store environment.
Before you get depressed I want to be the person to tell you that you are not alone. It is very hard to succeed with an app these days but just because you failed to reach your number of downloads or revenue numbers you should not give up. The secret to success is iteration and learning every step of the way. The only real failure is giving up too soon or not acting at all.
Here are some real stories for others in history that have failed and kept on going. They refused to believe that the rejects were the end point in their journey. I find these storied very inspiring and I hope you do as well.
Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was too stupid to learn anything. He was fired from his first two jobs for being non-productive. As an inventor, he made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When he was asked about the failures, Edison replied, I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps!
Fred Smith, the founder of Federal Express, received a C on his college paper for his idea for a reliable overnight delivery service. His Yale professor told him, the concept is interesting but in order to earn better than a C grade, the idea have to be feasible.
Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he lacked imagination and had no good ideas (I found this unbelievable) . He went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. The park was rejected by the city of Anaheim on the grounds that it would only attract riffraff.
The first time Jerry Seinfeld walked on-stage at a comedy club, he looked out at the audience, froze. He stumbled through a minute-and a half”of material and was mocked and booed off the stage by the ruthless crowd (believe me I am a musician and this feels terrible). He returned the following night and closed his set to wild applause.
Decca Records turned down a recording contract with the Beatles. They don’t like their sound. They also stated in the reject that groups of guitars are on their way out. After Decca rejected the Beatles, Columbia records followed suit and also rejected them. Crazy!
So how does all of this history apply to you and your app business? You have to stick with it. Building apps and getting them out to the world is a learned process and you need to keep building and keep learning with every iteration of your app or new apps. You can do it, and I know if you have the tenacity to stick with it you will be successful!
