Martin Rue

I build things on the internet.

A Little Bit of Delusion

94% of people believe they're above average.

But a little bit of delusion is a good thing.

For the past 3 years I've been building a tech startup.

It started with an idea I really believed in – a tool to help people learn languages.

To fund it, I lived like a monk for a year and a half and built up my own "personal seed round".

Buying back my time meant that I could throw it into building this new company, and actually stand a chance.

Fun fact: I hate the word "nomad" but I now call myself one.

I decided to move to Asia to 3x the value of that money and give myself more time.

My co-founder and I are 9 months into this journey.

We're making some early revenue, and it's incredible to be able to say that.

But there's still a lot of work to do, and our chance of success is still low.

In the tech world, it's not easy to find product market fit, happy customers and revenue.

9 out of 10 tech startups fail.

So, you need a bit of delusion!

You need to believe you're going to be an exception. You need to believe that you're going to find a way to beat the numbers.

Maybe you don't have a clue how you'll do that right now. You might be embarrassed to admit it. But you need to believe that you'll find a way regardless.

Something is going to have to drag you through a lot of lows, disbelief, and other setbacks.

Unshakeable faith in your eventual route to success is a part of it happening.

With a little delusion and determination, you stand a chance.

That's what we believe, but we're just a couple of idiots in the 94%.

Btw, 23.4% of stats are made up on the spot.