This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, hello, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. Thanks for tuning in today. So glad you're out there. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host.
Every single day, bringing you tips, stories, case studies, actionable information you can use to help make extra money without quitting your job. We've got people out there who are trying to go full time with their side hustle. We've got people who are just trying to get out of debt or save for a vacation. And a lot of people who just like the idea of starting something for themselves. Not necessarily thinking so much about what it's going to turn into, but enjoying the creative process, enjoying the idea of, you know, as I said, having some extra money.
Nothing at all wrong with that. Now, of course we're featuring success stories all the time, but today is our weekly segment known as Failure Friday. Failure Friday is a collection of short stories about all the things that go wrong. Mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course, absolute failure. You get to hear directly from someone who has struggled to get something off the ground.
And these stories tend to vary, but often they start with an idea. And then what happens when idea meets execution or doesn't in some cases. Now today's short story features Matt from Western Massachusetts. He's going to tell us about an ambitious idea he had for an indie mobile game. Now, because this is Failure Friday, you might suspect that it doesn't turn out that well.
And spoiler alert, you would be right. But of course the magic, or at least the lesson lies in the details. So let's hear more about it from him. Over to Matt. [Music]
My name is Matt from Western Mass.
And I work as a front end developer for a clothing manufacturer. I'm also working on a news site for coders that I hope you'll be able to feature as a future case study. But that's not what today's story is about. This one is a failure story. That's right.
Before I started working on the news site, I had another idea that I thought was brilliant. You already know it probably wasn't that smart, but for the record, here's how it turned out. Mobile gaming is a massive industry where even the games that don't become super popular can end up bringing in good income for the creator. I've been especially interested in Pokemon Go and anything else that uses geolocation data as part of the game. My idea was to make a game that relied on users making in-person connections based on their location.
Imagine everyone being at a mall, for example. The game becomes a scavenger hunt where strangers need to meet up in front of different stores. Creating this game posed a number of different challenges, both technical and otherwise. I worked on it nights and weekends and finally had a working model. I planned to spend most of my free time over the next few months on marketing.
But first, I submitted the app to the iOS app store and nothing. I didn't hear anything for days. Finally, I heard back and it wasn't good news. The app had been rejected. Damn.
But actually, I wasn't too worried at that point. Most of the time, rejections occur. It just means you made an error in your code or need to make a small adjustment in response to a developer note. However, in this case, they didn't really say what was wrong. They just said something about how the app violated Apple's terms and conditions without specifying how it did that.
I still figured I'd get in with the next submission, but that was swiftly rejected as well. Over the next few weeks, a troubling sequence set in. I'd make some tweaks, write an appeal, and send in the app. Then either a day or two later or sometimes up to a week later, I'd get an email that a response was in and it was never good. You might think, okay, well, that sucks about Apple, but why not put it on Android?
The thing is, developing for Android is a different process. It's not just a matter of flipping a switch. Second, at least in the US, a lot more people use iPhones. Finally, the process was just starting to feel discouraging. I'd done all this work and my game was rejected without a clear answer.
I just decided to put the project on pause for now. I still think it can be great, but I can't do much until the main platform for it comes around. I learned that I should have researched the approval process a bit more in advance. Somewhere along the way, I made a mistake that turned out to be unrecoverable. The other thing is that my news site won't be dependent on Apple or any other company.
Even though this is a failure story, I want to say that I remain positive. Hearing other people's struggles and successes has been a big part of that. So thanks for all you do. See you next time with a story that has a better ending. [Music]
Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.
Thanks so much, Matt, for sharing this story. And we definitely look forward to featuring the Coding news site. So I hope that second project works out well. I've had so many projects that have failed spectacularly or sometimes failed slowly, which in some ways is not as good as feeling spectacularly because when you just know it's not gonna work, you know it's not gonna work and you don't move forward. You can divert your attention elsewhere.
Whereas if it just fails slowly, you just continue to invest time and it's just a whole like sunk cost kind of thing. Sometimes these things that blow up are better than those slow failures. Anyway, if you have a question, listeners, if you have an update for us about your hustle, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Let me know what's going on. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/2127.
Thank you once again for tuning in today. Take care of yourself out there. Do one thing to get closer to a goal you believe in. And of course, subscribe, follow, come back tomorrow. My name's Chris Guillebeau.
This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
