The challenge of not having an income
by Iván Peña, Co-Founder | Software Engineer
Updated on March 7, 2025 · 2 min read
Hey there! I really hope this doesn’t become a regular thing, but here I am, writing another blog post fueled by rage and frustration. Somehow, these two seem to trigger my inspiration to write.
Yesterday, I was driving my ski-injured girlfriend to her job, just trying to be a good boyfriend. And as a reward, I got two speeding tickets for driving 7 km over the limit. The “funny” part? I got both tickets from the same spot, within an 11-minute window. 120 bucks per ticket! And you might be wondering, “Why so high?”. Honestly, I don’t know. I guess you’ve got to pay the police officer holding the speed gun, the one who prepared and sent me the ticket, the postman who delivered it, and probably some extra for the family of the tree that died to print the paper.
Anyway, life in Switzerland is great, but when you don’t have an income, it gets tough. Every new expense burns through your personal runway and makes you wonder if you’re even on the right path. Self-doubt is one of those evolutionary survival mechanisms that probably helped our ancestors make it through tough times. But when you’re trying to build your own business, it’s more of a hindrance than a help. Remember my last post?
I’ve read about a lot of famous indie hackers. Many of them started their journey with a part-time job (usually something like consulting) while working on their product. That makes sense—you get some income while building your thing. But at the same time, I’ve also read a ton about entrepreneurship, and the advice is usually to focus 100% of your time on growing your business, which doesn’t exactly mesh with having a part-time job. So, what’s the right balance?
The truth is, there’s no perfect answer. It doesn’t really matter if you do everything “right,” try a bunch of things, or go to all the right events. The reality is, you need some luck, and nothing guarantees that you’ll make it. So, with that in mind, where do you find the motivation to wake up every morning and work on your personal project for hours?
Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer for that (well, for sure not Elmo’s). As I mentioned in my first post, we’re just a couple of nerds trying to figure things out. But if you have any tips, we’d love to hear from you!
