Simple products and ideas have a better chance for success
I have probably said (or written) this before. But it seems to me that people who do only one thing and do it really well and very focused seem to ultimately be successful.
But, alas, I have a short attention span and a low tolerance for repetitiveness and boredom. Someone recently told me that sounds like most entrepreneurs. Maybe so, but I know not all entrepreneurs are that way, and in fact, probably the most successful are not.
I find that I tend to get farther on things when I concentrate on one thing for a long time. Putting some dedicated focus, research time, investigation, and action into one area tends to yield the best results for me.
Yet, I tend to focus for a while, drift a bit, refocus, lose interest, add a side project to keep me motivated and then ‘poof’, explode into a ball of flames and then have to refocus and get back on track.
Case in point. I was working rather steadily on a project and working out the details. It is one I have wanted to do for a while, but it wasn’t a money making project, at least not in the short term. Then I ran into a slight dilemma, one that required some testing, some looking around to see how others might have handled it and some time to reflect and decide.
But, since I wasn’t making any money, I decided to add another project that may have a pretty good potential. Now both projects are moving forward, though both are sort-of in the discovery phase for particular problems that need to be solved. But it reminded me of the problem I tend to get myself into.
Did I mention that I was tearing out the backyard too. Jack-hammered out a big brick planter, had the yard graded, added a sidewalk loop around the yard and then laid (and dug trenches for) some 60-80 yards of sprinklers.
This is probably a classic example of having a lot on my plate and having difficulty being focused. Especially when the main goal is to be making money.
So both of my software projects are larger type projects. I tend to think big and try to scale down. But my problem is that I am also a perfectionist. One of the biggest problems and killers in product development is being a perfectionist. For me personally, I can handle imperfections, but in order to release a product, I can’t stand having things that are slightly difficult for the average user.
One of my pet peeves in software is that people release software with a complete understanding of how it works (because they built it and use it) and have the expectation that others will intuitively ‘get it’. Not so in too many cases.
But if the projects were stripped down and simplified, people would have a lot more success with them and find them more useful and worth their reasonable investment.
So, I wanted, if for no other reason than to encourage myself, to say that simple projects have a higher likelihood of getting finished, getting to market, being purchased and making money. Complicated projects have a higher likelihood of never getting finished and then never having a chance to make any money.
NOTE TO SELF:
Product development tip: Focus on simple products and ideas as these tend to be more likely to be completed and thus successful.
So, ’self’, take that to heart 
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