I had a dream the other night. I was sitting in a room with a few other people and David was giving a presentation about his history building products. I don't remember how I got there, but he was trying so hard to say that to be successful in our business, you have to work on the hard problems, and keep doing it. I then woke up and thought about it for a few seconds, then returned to sleep, and thought some more, I eventually woke up the next day.
It's not like DHH gave me this tip for real of course. Still, I started to think about the meaning of those words, fealing they were hiding an important message.
I looked at the note again today, and decided it was time to give it its voice. I started thinking about my open source projects, some of them successful. It became clear that what DHH was trying to say in my dream was to focus on solving the hard problems and opportunities that my existing projects presented, instead of being constantly looking for the new opportunities, and that if I were to do that every day they'd eventually become even more successful.
The same advice applies to the products I'd build too. It's not the idea you have, it's how well you execute it, iteration after iteration. It's the care you take in every step of the process. DHH was trying to tell me that even my half baked idea could be very successful, if only I'd focus and work long enough on it, solving new problems with creativity and dedication. And patience.
This was only a dream, and I don't know DHH personally, but the advice is still solid. I hope it can inspire you to build great things too, like it did for me.