[throwaway000021]

I'm not successful, but my strategy for getting there is specific....

-- never put yourself in the position to go bankrupt

-- stay in the game - keep your overheads down to the minimum practical for you

-- learn to program so you can implement your own ideas without need for a cofounder or need to pay for anything more than hosting and a domain

-- just keep banging out your ideas into products until one catches on.

-- try to bootstrap and if possible avoid raising capital - it's too distracting and costly and dilutes your time massively

-- do your very best to avoid employing anyone until you really can't avoid it

-- don't get a cofounder if you can possibly avoid it - it can lead to arguments and business failure... if you really need help, bootstrap till you can employ someone

-- repeat until success or giving up, not because you're forced to stop

[agumonkey]

Forgot where I read this but the article said that you'd better pick the options that have the most probability of high returns. A way to save energy. I'm naturally drawn to hard and long and get stuck and exhausted.

[mindcrime]

By and large, this is the same algorithm I use. I've really only deviated on one point.

That said, I'd add to this the idea of thinking in terms of "Return on Capital Invested" where your time and effort are a from of Capital. IOW, it's important (IMO) to figure out how to direct your attention towards the efforts that are most likely to yield the outcomes (whether financial or otherwise) that you seek. The problem, of course, is that you don't know in advance how things will play out. So you have to experiment, but once you begin an experiment the big question becomes "do I keep going on this, or redirect my effort to something else which has a higher probability of success?" (for however you define "success").

[fyfy18]

One thing worth bearing in mind when bootstrapping a company is that to be successful you just need to earn enough to cover costs and pay yourself something at the end of the day. Which is completely different to 95% of the companies you read about on here.

If you are building it on the side even just making a few hundred dollars per month is going to completely change things for you, and give you the freedom to explore more risky ideas. We may not have a universal income, but with hard work and dedication ("showing up is half the battle"), I believe anybody here could build a side business to supplement their income in a meaningful way.

[graeme]

> just keep banging out your ideas into products until one catches on

Good list in general. But identifying a market and seeking to serve it is a better recipe.

You still want to get stuff out there and test it rapidly. But having some idea as to whether a product will be useful is a good idea.