I started my indie developer journey with one goal in mind: freedom.

Not passive income. Not a quick exit. The freedom to build things people actually use without dealing with suppliers, employees, endless meetings, or corporate politics. My biggest headache is Apple’s review process. Surprisingly, I can live with that.

There was another reason I started.

I needed to learn Swift.

A few months ago, that would have sounded like a huge obstacle. Today, with AI, the world is different. I already knew Python, and years ago I co-founded a company focused on SaaS and IT infrastructure management, so I wasn’t starting from zero. AI changes how we write software, but it doesn’t eliminate the need to understand how software is built. That’s a discussion for another day.

At the beginning, I made a decision that probably sounds strange.

I decided to build apps that I expected to fail.

Not because I wanted them to fail, but because I needed to separate learning from expectations.

If I had poured everything into my “million-dollar idea” on day one and it failed, there was a good chance I would have walked away from indie development altogether. Worse, I would have spent my entire learning phase emotionally attached to one outcome.

Instead, I treated my first apps as tuition.

They still had to be real products. They still had to be good enough for strangers to download. But their real purpose was teaching me how to ship an app, deal with App Store reviews, subscriptions, design decisions, bugs, ASO, screenshots, analytics, and all the countless problems you never think about before you publish.

Of course, something unexpected happened.

As each app improved, I started believing in it.

The learning project slowly became a product. The product became a dream. Suddenly I was checking downloads, watching trials, hoping for subscribers, and imagining that maybe this one would be different.

That’s the emotional trap.

Every indie developer knows that feeling of thinking, “Maybe this is the one.”

Today, I still remind myself that I’m in the learning phase.

I’ve learned how to build apps.

Now I’m learning how to market them.

Those are two completely different skills.

Soon I’ll have to build something with real expectations attached to it. A product where I’m emotionally invested from day one. When that day comes, I hope all the mistakes I made on these first apps will give that idea a better chance of surviving.

Until then, I celebrate the small wins, learn from the failures, and keep building.

We’ll see where the journey leads.

Ps: Shockingly all three apps are making money. a few dollars. which is still an unexpected outcome.