The Journey begins
“This shit is hard.”
That’s the thought in the back of my head the whole time as I write these first-ever blog lines. It hits me like a ton of bricks – I just started. To give you some wider context: for the last five months, I’ve put my nose down on the grind stone and chugged on coffee in liters while I worked relentlessly day after day (and pulled off many, many all-nighters) with the intention to bring this project to life. Five days ago, I posted my first videos on the channels and thought “That’s it. Now I only need to maintain and grow it,” as if the hardest part was over. Writing this blog post is a lot harder than I imagined. Growing a channel is also a lot harder than I imagined. Hitting zero views, post after post, is not the greatest morale booster either.
But it’s fine. That was to be expected. I knew it would be hard, just not like this. But fuck it, now that I am in the middle of it, I’ll pull through. Quitting is an option, just not in the realm of possible choices for me.
Building the Foundation
You might ask yourself: why did it take me 5 months to build a website and start a channel, and that would be a fair question. The idea was to build a software platform that will support the channel logistics. And, man, was this hard to make. My initial estimate was 1.5 months, but the project ended up taking me nearly 5 months. Yes, that’s a 3X factor. And it’s not because I procrastinated or anything, it’s because of the sheer amount of necessary work and unexpected daily obstacles and complications around everything. I significantly underestimated the project’s scope (even though I am a fucking software developer). This is one important insight that I’ll make sure to remember for future undertakings.
But that is also fine. The optimism has definitely helped me to start doing this and has kept me doing for the first 2 thirds, since I always thought that the finish line is around the corner.
New Challenges
The funny thing is that although I busted my ass working 12-15 hours every single day (yes, not a single day off, including my birthday where I worked for 14 hours), I came to realize that this was actually the easy part. It was hard, but at least I knew what I had to do. I had a sense of direction. Now I have to figure everything out around social media, blog writing (writing in general, that is), which is yet another new world to explore. Now I am in the phase where I have no idea what the fuck I am doing.
That, too, is also fine. I want to move away from programming and dive into other experiences to expand my skill set. It’s the thing that’s needed to progress further.
Finally Feeling Alive
All of this leads me to another conclusion: I’ve never felt more alive. Seriously. For the first time in my life, I felt true drive that literally kept me awake at night. The sole intensity of the experience is what I have begun to crave, and I am sure it will only get more exciting. Although it was hard as hell and very tiring, I felt invigorated. As a good friend told me yesterday: “when you suffer for a purpose, it’s not suffering in the true sense, because your soul remains untouched by it.” This resonated deeply. If this is what bliss feels like, I’m in.
And this, my friend, is what answers the “Why Even Bother?” question: because it will make you feel alive. Because you will grow as a person through the process.
What’s Next
You can expect a new blog post every weekend for now. This is my commitment to you, and I won’t let you down. Maybe in the future, I’ll post more often when I get a hold on writing. In the next post, I’ll get into the nooks and crannies of the process, lessons learned, and how I actually applied them to achieve this. I will also discuss briefly the software platform that supports my channel and what it exactly does.
Dear reader, the fact that you are reading this is proof that I have finally broken the spell of laziness, procrastination, and indetermination. Thus, I am glad to welcome you to DAILY GROWTH. Your participation is highly appreciated!
Until next week,
Mirza
