Bit of background about me:<p>I'm 22. Over the past year I built a small Internet business that is making about $20k/month. The business is basically fully automated now.<p>My dream is to build a great consumer tech company, something like Google, Facebook or Reddit. I'm not interested in building B2B businesses. I'm interested in building something that a lot of people use.<p>This means I have:<p><pre><code> - lots of free time
- no need to worry about money
- some money to put into my next project
- enough programming skills to build any website or mobile app
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What I don't have:<p><pre><code> - Good connections for co-founders or investors (I'm a bit anti-social)
- US passport (I'm Canadian, but I want to move to US)
- Not much deep expertise in any leading technology
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I've been quite frustrated recently. I finished building a new project that is not working right now, and I'm not really motivated to work on it anymore. I feel somewhat disconnected from building something "big".<p>I realized that instead of jumping head-first into a new project, it may be worth taking the time to explore some things. However, "exploring" feels bad because I feel lost and purposeless. I realized that I'm the happiest when I'm working on some great project. Ironically, "work" isn't really work for me. I feel sad when I'm taking time off. My dream life would be to work 12 hours a day, every day, building a great company.<p>As I'm writing this, I feel pretty bad. I woke up this morning and didn't do anything "productive"; just reading and playing some games. I really want to work on something great but I have no idea how I'm supposed to find the next thing to work on.<p>If you were me, what would you do?
When you think of "something like Google or Facebook", remember that Google and Facebook are evil, and it's a matter of time before someone is looking at something more ethical. Build a business that isn't based on ads.<p>Your best connection for a co-founder or investor is right here: You're on HN. If you do something super interesting, the right people see it here on HN, people will come to you. Pretty sure it's like half of why YC runs this thing.<p>If you want to build something that you're excited about, it's got to be a problem or a need that speaks to you. Remember that Google built an ad-powered search company that now controls everyones phones and email and web browsers. Facebook built a way to rate hot girls in college and now is everyone's social group. They got there not by starting at world domination, they started at a single product and then grew beyond it by leveraging the strengths of the technology and talent they had.
Try prototyping apps/products for yourself or friends. At least if they don't become big companies they were useful and hopefully fun.<p>> I woke up this morning and didn't do anything "productive"<p>Stop thinking about it, enjoy your free time by going outside more. My most creative ideas appear when I stop looking for them.<p>Also, this related post is on the front page right now:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21324768" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21324768</a>