# Being a Programmer Isn't enough
12 February 2023
In the global economy that we are living right now there are some unspoken but well known rules. One of them is that we are as programmers in majority of cases cannot claim some profit share of the business we're working for. Sure, in some locations on our globe you can find really good jobs with really good salaries. And after many years of work you can even afford to buy an apartment/house, make a family and live a happy office life. Sure, it's possible. But in majority of cases, the amount of hours you put into the work is not comparable to the amount of profit you get.
You may argue with me on what's fair and what's not. And you even may think that it's okay to have billionaires who get richer and richer just by hiring large number of really cheap labor and firing them when it's time to reduce costs. Sure...
But the reality is that you as a programmer would be happy to afford really good quality of life for yourself, your family and secure your future and the lifestyle you're used to when you get old (trust me, it can happen). I am not sure, whether you will be still happy to work for your big boss in your 40s or 50s. Well, I will just try to suggest some alternative for you.
So, are there any ways to achieve the goals I described above? The only sensible approach I can think of is to start a business. Or in another words, to start doing something that some people can value and find useful and would pay to you as a compensation for your work/service.
So, let me explain how we can increase our chances to succeed on this path.
### Domain knowledge
If you as a programmer know only how to code, you will be struggling to find a really worthy idea to implement. But if you will try to find something interesting for yourself in the real world and try to explore the problems in other fields, the chances that you will find something will be much higher. And you know that our world is full of problems and inefficient solutions that exist out there. You just need to increase your curiosity and don't be afraid of real challenges.
### Stupid ideas
Try to avoid stupid ideas. Most ideas that you will come up with are not worth to be implemented. Stupid ideas are attractive to the people with little knowledge about our world. This is why this section is tightly related to the previous one. Try to increase your vast knowledge. I really think that it's very important to find something that is really useful for the people. But in order to find something, you need to dig into the promlems that your potential clients encounter.
### Idea for the lifetime
How to pick an idea? Just answer on one simple question: "Is this something I would spend my life on?". If the answer is yes, then go for it. If the answer is no, probably you need to find something else. You may disagree with me on this one. But if the idea is not powerful enough for you, who can guarantee that you'll will not quit? And trust me, it is really easy to give up, especially if you've chosen something that you don't really like.
### Implementation
If you're full stack developer, you already have a good knowledge on how to implement something from the scratch. Try to avoid over engineering and keep it simple. I would suggest a really good book on how you can achieve that: [Getting Real](https://basecamp.com/gettingreal) (it's absolutely free).
Try to find people/resources that can help you to learn and increase your knowledge on something that you're lacking at the moment.
I think the most important thing about the implemetation of the ideas is that you need to work on it everyday. If you cannot do something today because you don't have enough time or you're struggling with something, just try to write down your plans, or at least how you would approach some problems in the future.
It's better to do something little everyday than something big once in a while. The more consistent you are, the more chances that you would value your work and will continue the implementation. And again, if you've chosen the right idea, being consistent is not a huge problem.
### Rely on yourself
If you can find a partner(s) who can help you and who is as passionate about the idea as you are, it's really awesome. But in the majority of cases you probably cannot find a partner, or just cannot afford one. In this case, just try to do it by yourself. It only may sound difficult, but you don't have to be in rush, everything can be done slowly and at the right pace for you. And don't be afraid to learn more than you're supposed to know. You must enjoy of learning new things, that's what keeps you interested in the process.
### Promotion
There are lot of different ways you can choose to promote your product. I think that the most efficient, sustainable and organic one is through education. I will probably write more about this one, because this is something I need to learn myself now. But I think that just reaching out to the people and describing problems and how you can solve them can be very crucial and powerful. And you don't even need to mention your product, you just can describe something in general or have many other related thoughts that you potential clients may find very inspiring and interesting.
### Don't try to conquer the world
If you can get even one client, it's really awesome. Don't underappreciate such little things, try to find source of motivation to push forward with every little win. You don't need millions of users, not at the start for sure. You need to build sustainable and robust product. The slower you grow, the more time you have to build one. Put the freedom over the money, this way you will be more happy.
### Put a price tag
You still need to get some profit of your product. Don't be afraid of it, yes you will lose lots of people, but you will be left with the ones who really appreciate your work and a service you provide. Don't build your business on ads, it's just a bad taste, respect yourself and your clients.
It's very easy to give your product for free, because it can mentally put away the pressure to deliver, work and promote your product. And your business will eventually die without profit.
### Hire people when you really need them
I guess you can hire people only when you can afford to share profit with them. That may sound insane to you. But I think the opposite. Try to improve infrastructure and technologies in your project, so that you would need less people. Think more about the quality rather than quantity. I would prefer to pay really good money to one person rather than to have ten employees with less salary. Simply because, that one person would be super motivated to work with me and grow the business, because the growth of the business means the growth of the profit each person gets.
### Thousands of small businesses are better than few monopolies
If we all try to found our little businesses and implement profit shared models in those businesses, then we would have more sustainable future and freedom. We will not be dependent on corporations and companies who's the only goal is to get as much profit as they can without securing our future.
[Reddit Comments](https://www.reddit.com/user/gyen/comments/1102618/being_a_programmer_isnt_enough/) / [HN Comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34757952) / [Medium Comments](https://medium.com/@guseynism/being-a-programmer-isnt-enough-6c3da6a15f95)
References
* [Getting Real](https://basecamp.com/gettingreal)