Lessons learned from building stuff that nobody wants
I have a graveyard of half-built products, domain names, and logos that are just sitting around. It is easier than ever to create digital products ( no-code, SaaS, memberships, courses, newsletters).
Ideas can be a curse if you do not know how to control them.
My wife jokes that she could build a house with my business cards. There is a lot of truth there, as I just found two different cards in the back of my closet this morning.
When I got an idea that seemed valid enough, I went all in.
I created the identity package: Name, Domain, Logo, and all social handles.
I would create a website with filler content explaining the problem that I thought I could solve.
After that, I would start on the product, a new Laravel app, build a funnel, or create automation sequences.
And so it went until I came across a better idea as I was building that one.
It was a cycle that was hard to break. The worst part was that I wasn't making any money and wasting a lot of time.
The problem: I never actually validated the idea.
I may have talked to my wife about it, but I never took the step past sharing before creating.
So how do creators break the cycle and build something people want?
It starts with validation. Until someone buys your idea, meaning hands over cash, the idea has not been validated.
Lesson learned: Start with validation and iterate from there.
Related: How To Create A Losing Product and Product Validation.
2026 Update: Building Is Cheap Now. Validation Still Is Not.
Every lesson in this post hit harder after AI agents made building nearly free. I can generate a complete MVP in a weekend now. That is not hyperbole. The technical barrier to shipping something is gone. But the lessons about building things nobody wants are exactly the same. The graveyard is now full of AI-generated products that nobody asked for instead of hand-coded ones. The failure mode did not change. Only the speed of failure did. If anything, the ability to build fast makes the temptation to skip validation even stronger. Do not fall for it.
