I drove my car into a ditch

I put my car in a ditch one night, and released the free version of MaxFindsCars the next day...

...and 4 other very non-optimal habits that helped me work on my side business every day for 313 days in a row and counting.

Okay putting my car in a ditch was a shameless attention grab, admittedly. It was wholly unrelated to MaxFindsCars other than the fact that the car that I put in said ditch was found using MaxFindsCars.

Full circle moment, much like the circles my car was making as it slid uncontrollably down a driveway.

Ditch talk over. Let's talk habits and tools.

Most of you are probably aware MaxFindsCars is no longer just a newsletter. It’s also a service that automates your search for enthusiast cars for sale online.

Building the software that does that car searching is the main reason why the newsletter posts have been a bit (understatement) lacking in frequency as of late.

Up until last week, that ‘automated car-searching’ service was paid only, at $2.25/mo.

With it you can subscribe to 3 makes and models, and for each you can filter by a bunch of things, paint, mileage, price, yadda yadda yadda.

BUT NOW, dearest reader, there’s a free option. You still get 3 makes & models, and you still get some filters, just not all of them. If that sounds cool to you, or if you just want to support a man you (probably) don’t know, signing up will take like 23 seconds of your time depending on your typing speed.

Yes I timed this myself, yes I am a slow typist. If you beat my time of 23 seconds let me know and I will praise your typing skills in the next newsletter.

ALL THIS SAID, all this coding has been a labor of love, and its taken me over 300 days of working on this EVERY SINGLE DAY to get to this point, and I wouldn’t have been able to keep that streak alive if not for a few important & weird habits/tools.

SO…

Below is a far too wordy and poorly written summary of the things that helped me work on my business, MaxFindsCars, even though I have a busy day job at a startup, a wife, pets, and friends that unknowingly peer pressure me into having hobbies outside of work.

And, as a caveat, these are just the things helped me build this habit. It won't work for everyone, but I hope its a helpful example that there are simple, easy, and cheap ways to build a habit like this - you don't have to preliminarily hyper-optimize your whole life & do things you don't want to do before you can work on a passion project daily.

Tool Number 1: HabitKit

A simple app made by a solo-entrepreneur, but the number one thing I attribute to this streak of 300+ days I have going.

It tracks and gamifies your habits. What does that mean? Basically, you choose a habit you want to cultivate & track, and you press a button whenever you 'do the thing' you're tracking. In my case, it was 'work on your business daily'.

I found this app on X (the everything app, its all happening on X (if you get this reference, hello fellow AWL)) around February 2024. I liked how it tracked habits in a way that reminded me of the GitHub contribution grid (which is a top 5 grid, right up there with chess boards and the Commissioner's Plan of 1811 that conceived the NYC street grid system), so I figured I'd download it and give it a shot.

I didn't immediately start working on the business every day as soon as I got the app. I was actually on vacation at the time and was just trying to work on the idea of MaxFindsCars here and there.

So, it was spotty for a few weeks, but at some point after downloading it, the thought just hit my brain that... I don't really have an excuse to not be working on this business every day, even if its just for a few minutes. So, that's the agreement I made with myself.

That agreement built some momentum. I got a few days going in a row and didn't want to break the streak. It snowballed, and here I am.

HabitKit, 100% the best dollar I spend a month.

TOOL NUMERO 2: Get Your Work In Front of People

Okay FINE, not really a tool, more a method.

If you haven’t noticed (see: grammar) I am NOT a perfectionist, and I've found its a LOT easier to keep moving and improving on something when you put it out into the world, in front of the public, imperfectly. You naturally want to make it better so your peers, high school bullies, etc... don't look at your work and think "YIKES" (this probably happens regardless, but that's not the point).

Mr. LinkedIn once said "if you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late", but what does that really mean? IMO, it comes down to 1) if you're embarrassed, you're going to be really motivated to fix your work and stop being embarrassed, and 2) if you aren't embarrassed, it probably means you spent a lot of time perfecting what you thought was the right solution, rather than putting something simple out there and gathering feedback from actual users/customers. The latter is, in most cases, the better path towards building something people want.

Habit 3: EXERCISE

I'm not going to be (more) annoying (than I already am) and harp on this, I'll just say exercise gives me energy, makes me feel more focused, and makes me happy. All of these things make it easier to work on MaxFindsCars.

HABIT FOUR (4)

This one is dumb and ADMITTEDLY, probably yet another sign I am a strange cat… but whatever. We are in the trust tree here, right?

Okay so.. I, if I am feeling low energy or distracted when I want to be working on MaxFindsCars, will... go on Zillow and sort by highest to lowest price and scroll through all the houses I can't afford.

Told you it was dumb... but it IS legitimately motivating for me. Financial freedom is not the goal of MaxFindsCars, the goal is to build the best way to find enthusiast cars online. BUT, would I like it to become profitable someday so I can buy a house with a huge garage so I can fit more money-pit vehicles in my life? 

Yes absolutely.

In total these 4 things are my weird, unique, individual framework for working on this passion project daily. They cost in total $1/month to do.

Will it work for you? I have no idea. The point of this was not to say, generally speaking, "this is the way". It's meant to be an example that working on a side business or passion project doesn't have to be complicated.

That said, if you DO try any of these, or if you have your own habits that contribute to your work/happiness/health/etc, let me know!

Lastly, I know this wasn't an email about a car, but if you liked this kind of 'personal blog' style post, let me know about that too. I enjoyed changing things up a bit, so if my dearest readers dig this type of thing you'll be seeing more soon.

And remember…

MaxFindsCars.com is not, technically, free! By subscribing, dear reader, you have agreed to tell your friends about it.

In fact, I believe the contract specifically stated you had to each subscribe 100 of your closest friends, colleagues, enemies, exes, priests, pets, & sugar mommas. I’ll have to check the fine print to be sure, but you all may as well get started spreading the word in the meantime.

That's a wrap for today. And if you want more MaxFindsCars, be sure to follow Max’s X (@maxjzin)