You are definitely right, though. Your mindset will have a significant impact on what you decide to do. If you go into every decision with the mindset that you’re afraid of failing, you’ll either make conservative decisions that will doom you to mediocrity or you’ll be so paralyzed with fear that you don’t make a decision at all and end up worse off.

If you want to run a business as an indie game developer, you’ll have to know something about marketing and sales. Luckily those are topics that have been written and analyzed to death for other industries, and people are starting to write specifically for indie game development, too. Check out Seth Godin’s Blog for some insight into general modern marketing. I haven’t read his books, but I think I might have to. B-) Check out VGSmart.com and the blog there for marketing geared towards indie developers. The main guy who runs that site just published a book which I am reading right now.

I guess everyone has fears. I’ve noticed that fear is usually the result of a lack of information. People are afraid of monsters under their beds or in their closets until they begin to understand that monsters can’t simply materialize just because the lights go out. Similarly, if you’re afraid of starting your own business because you think that marketing is too difficult, I’d suggest listing out why you think that is the case. I’ve found that doing so helps me get my fears in focus, which usually shows that the huge shadows they were throwing on the walls at night were just illusions. Once you get a chance to analyze them, you’ll find that the fears are usually not that big of a deal.

Another thing that might cause fear is the fear of the unknown or unfamiliar. Starting a business, especially if it is your first time, is scary. It is amazingly easy to “start” the business, but I had put it off for months because I wanted to make sure I had everything I needed. In hindsight, I wish I could have started it when I originally started to think about doing so, but the good news is that I started it.

Starting a business is scary because riding a bicycle is scary. If you haven’t done it before, you don’t know what to do or what you can do to improve your chances. I’d say that you shouldn’t let that stop you. Dip your toes in the water, or jump in. Either way, you are making an effort to get in the water. One way is faster but scarier while the other way is more cautious but slow. Either way is better than sitting at home wondering what it would have been like if you would have had the courage to go in the water.

On the other hand, if I think about it realistically, everyone must of course have doubts. The difference must be whether or not they’ve read Mark Twain and follow that piece of advice, then!

…And thanks a lot for making marketing/sales/customers/indie development seem even more complicated and risky! *Sigh*

Actually, I would argue that it isn’t the lack of fear so much as the idea that you’ll do it despite the fear. I’m sure that there is a Mark Twain quote along those lines, but anyway, the idea is that starting a business is scary no matter what you’re doing. Indie game development is just a bit more scary due to the lack of information people have.

As for marketing, it is true that you can’t repeat formulas and get wins. Customers are people, and they are too complex to figure out how to build a marketing plan that guarantees success. Marketing isa mixture of statistics, psychology, and sociology, and probably a few more ologies, too. Bottom line, marketing just means that you’re getting the word out about your products or services. If no one knows about you, no one can buy from you. Marketing is a means towards sales.

And sales is another topic entirely. B-)