Well, the 10-Year plan didn’t work out. I just wasn’t enjoying my return to the Mac App Store or the iTunes App Store. It was a lot of work for very little reward. Now I’m thinking of a new plan. Maybe the next plan will be even more grandiose or perhaps I should keep things simple. I’m not sure. What I do know is that I need to enjoy what I’m doing. While Photics is a business, it’s also supposed to be fun!
20 years ago, when I started Photics, I felt that I wasn’t fully using my talent. I had an OK job in NYC, but it wasn’t very challenging. It was more mechanical than creative. This website was a way to think big. Over the years, there were some nice accomplishments. I learned a lot, met a lot of nice people online and launched some successful projects. But overall, I didn’t hit that level of satisfaction.
There’s something missing. I still feel I haven’t accomplished what I’m supposed to do with this website. I’m not trying to be like Elon Musk, where I launch an electric car into space, but I still feel that I’m not fully using my abilities. Photics doesn’t have to be a billion-dollar company to be successful. While that could be nice, money is only part of the equation. Photics has to make a difference – make the world better.
I’m not sure what that is yet.
Meanwhile, it certainly is a lot harder to do things online. Giant tech companies have already cornered off a huge part of the Internet, while new regulations are draining the fun. It looks like online sales tax in the United States is about to change – https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-rules-in-internet-sales-tax-case/ – and the GDPR can also be tedious. I don’t want to build a website where there’s a cookie warning on one side and a blinking banner ad on the other.
So, what will I build? I don’t know, but the plan is to think of a plan.