Positivity and your friends
Hi everyone! Firstly, in case you’re wondering, you previously subscribed to by blog at splinter.com.au. I blog about iOS development and my roundabout journey on the way to entrepreneurship. I think a little brutal honesty in the form of my less-than-stellar story can help people feel like they’re not the only one on the roundabout, hoping to get off it one day.
Well, what’s new? My iOS apps are down to single-digits daily income. It’s a pretty common story for indie developers, really. Not much to speak of there. Our house is almost finished being built, we’re being held up by the government department for hooking up gas. Contracting at News Corp currently - the project finishes in 6 weeks but my contract finishes in a few months, which is interesting. I’ve started a mailing list for iOS devs in Sydney looking for work too - i get a lot of companies contact me directly through this blog when they’re looking for people, so i figured why not make a mailing list for it: splinter.com.au/grapevine
Year of positivity
As i’ve written about before, this year i’ve been trying a few different approaches to becoming a more positive guy. I hope someone out there finds this useful. I’m sure there are a lot of you out there battling the daily grind of starting a business on the side, and can do with a dose of positivity :)
I’ve been trying to brainwash myself. I bet that sounds terrible, so let me explain: Essentially the idea is to come up with some positive phrase and repeat it in your mind several times a day with an alarm on your phone, trying to get it ‘stuck’ in your mind. In my case, the phrase was something to the effect of ‘I’m not a victim, our builder almost sent us broke, but it drove me to contracting and now we’re doing OK.’ This sentence might make more sense if you’ve been reading my blog a while and have followed the saga my family’s been through building a house.
But what i’ve found is that no matter how many times i repeat this phrase in my conscious mind, i get more and more frustrated. You know what i’m pretty sure is happening? Deep down, i just can’t accept this sentence - my unconscious mind knows it’s a lie! The truth is, i was already a contractor before our builder went broke. If they hadn’t gone broke, i would still be earning contractor rates, but wouldn’t be paying off a monstrous debt. There could have been a nice new car or boat sitting in the driveway, or some money saved that i could have used to fund time off to attempt a startup. Instead, well, there’s just an empty driveway. But at least we’re solvent :)
So trying to brainwash yourself into positivity by simply repeating a positive phrase doesn’t work in my experience, if you unconsciously reject the phrase.
Friends
Recently, I spent a couple of days at work chasing down a bug. In the end, i couldn’t find it, and one of my colleagues found it in his spare time. Very embarrassing - although less so than Apple’s iMessage woes in iOS7!
Anyway, got me thinking - we’re not meant to operate in isolation. Working closely with encouraging friends will take you a lot further than you can get on your own. So that’s going to be my next idea on the path to positivity - see if i can make some regular time with close friends to encourage each other. It’d be easier if so many of my mates hadn’t left sydney due to the unaffordable housing market!
Keep in touch, everyone.
Thanks for reading! And if you want to get in touch, I'd love to hear from you: chris.hulbert at gmail.
Chris Hulbert
(Comp Sci, Hons - UTS)
Software Developer (Freelancer / Contractor) in Australia.
I have worked at places such as Google, Cochlear, Assembly Payments, News Corp, Fox Sports, NineMSN, FetchTV, Coles, Woolworths, Trust Bank, and Westpac, among others. If you're looking for help developing an iOS app, drop me a line!
Get in touch:
[email protected]
github.com/chrishulbert
linkedin
