log 211: follow

success

My brother came to visit me in LA and we had a great time being hockey fans. I always forget he's a great resource to get advice from because he's gone through all the things that I’ve gone through already. He made all the mistakes so I wouldn’t have to. He's got far more experience than me in building a business that actually makes money so I should really listen to him. One of the things we talked about was keeping it simple and following what other successful people/companies do. I wanted to create a “season pass” for Kynetik so that I could get around the 15 - 30 % service fee that Apple enforces. But as we talked more I realised that I was making it too complicated by trying to get around a small roadblock that could cost me users. If everyone in the app industry just accepts the fees then that is the norm. They all just suck it up and deal with it because Apple has the monopoly. If I try to go out of the norm then my “uniqueness” may kill me instead. Keeping it simple and following what other people do isn’t always a bad idea, especially when it’s a big decision. My uniqueness needs to come from smaller, more important, deviations that provide value to the user.