Why side projects get abandoned: who is waiting.
Why side projects get abandoned comes down to who is waiting. When two commitments compete for the same hours, the one with external deadlines wins. So the business, which only you wait on, quietly slides. Then one week it is gone.
Segura Cash and the Techstars finals.
Diego built Segura Cash, business templates for people starting out, like Canva but for premade businesses. It reached the finals of a Techstars programme in New York. Meanwhile, he was running a startup while in grad school, doing two masters degrees at once in Boston. There were not enough hours, so something had to give.
Why side projects get abandoned without a decision.
The business gave, completely, and the degrees did not. Nobody made him choose, and there was no evening where he decided. Instead, coursework had deadlines with other people's names, while the startup had only his. As a result, the thing with external consequences won week after week.
Decide who is waiting for your hours.
His other commitment was two degrees, not a job. But the arithmetic only cares that there were two, and that one had a supervisor. So the one that loses is not the less important one. It is the one nobody else is waiting on, which makes prioritizing your own business a deliberate act.
Before you claim your hours, name who is waiting.
Before you claim your fifteen hours, write the name of one person who will wait for them.
Give that person one date this week when they expect to see something from you.
From the book.
Not the degrees. Nobody sat me down and made me choose, and there was no evening where I decided. The coursework had deadlines with other people's names attached to them and the startup had deadlines with only mine, so week after week the thing with external consequences won, and the thing that was only mine quietly slid. Then one week it had slid far enough that there was nothing left to slide.
I Want to Start a Business but I Can't Quit My Job, chapter 10: What the double life costs
Questions about why side projects get abandoned.
Is this why side projects get abandoned even when they are good?
Yes. Segura Cash was good enough for Techstars finals, yet it lost to work with external deadlines.
Does it matter if my other commitment is study, not a job?
No. The arithmetic only cares that there are two, and that one has a supervisor.
What should I decide before finding my hours?
Decide who will be waiting for them. Otherwise you already know which commitment gives.
Read the whole chapter.
This lesson covers one section of chapter 10, “What the double life costs”. The book goes further, with the full evidence, the stories and every exercise.
Lessons in this chapter.
- 01 Who owns my side project: read the clause tonight.
- 02 Employee Invention Laws by Country: Four Answers.
- 03 Weekly Time Audit: Find Your Fifteen Real Hours.
- 04 Working 55 hours a week: why an end date matters.
- 05 Does loving your job prevent burnout: the real answer.
- 06 Attention residue: the two kinds of strain.
- 07 Why side projects get abandoned: who is waiting.