In life, we all face obstacles that we want to overcome. The challenge is often how to begin tackling them, especially when we don’t know where the journey will lead. Instead of waiting for the perfect circumstances or the right moment, sometimes the best approach is to simply start. Don’t focus too much on the end result or expect immediate success. If you give your efforts time and dedication, they will grow into something bigger, even if it starts out small. Here’s a story from my own experience that illustrates this concept perfectly.
Learning React Native: The Start of Something Small
When I first decided to learn React Native, I approached it in the simplest way possible. I knew that the best way for me to learn was by building something—an actual application. Like many developers, I started by looking for a straightforward project. At the time, I noticed that a lot of beginners were building to-do lists, calculators, or other basic user interfaces. I decided to take a different route, one that aligned with my background as a professional swimmer in my younger years.
I was about 16 or 17 years old when I started building a React Native application. It was around 2018 or 2019, and I created a „Fina points“ calculator, an app that calculated points based on a swimmer’s performance. The concept was simple: it used a formula based on world records to calculate points from swim times, or vice versa. I don’t remember the exact formula anymore, but that wasn’t the most important part. What mattered was that I took a step to create something that I could build on.
Competition and the Importance of Persistence
Interestingly, there was already another app on the market that did exactly what I was aiming to do. It had around 10,000 downloads and tons of reviews. Everyone was using it. Despite this, I decided to push forward and create my own version, knowing that competition was fierce. I literally copied the other app’s UI and finished building my version in about a week, even though I was just learning React Native at the time.
Once the app was ready, I launched it on the Google Play Store. At first, the downloads were painfully slow—maybe 10 in the first month, and only five the next month. By the end of the first year, I had accumulated 100 downloads. By the second year, that number had grown to about 200. It wasn’t exactly taking off, but I kept going.
Redesigning for Success
After about three years of slow but steady progress, my app had reached around 3,000 downloads. I realized it was time for a redesign. By then, I had gained more experience in development, and I felt confident that I could improve the app’s user interface. So, I spent a couple of weeks redesigning the app, giving it a fresh and modern look. Then, I made it available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
That’s when things really started to take off. Thanks to the cross-platform nature of React Native, the app quickly gained more traction. Suddenly, I was getting around 500 downloads per month—all without any marketing efforts! The app was marketing itself through word of mouth and organic search.
The Unexpected Growth
What began as a small project to learn a new development framework has now grown into something much bigger. Today, the app has been downloaded over 25,000 times, and around 10,000 people actively use it. Considering I started this as a 17-year-old just trying to learn React Native, this is beyond anything I could have imagined at the time.
The app has been out for five years now, and who knows where it will be in another five? I could add more features, grow the user base even more, or even turn it into the largest swimming app in the market. The possibilities are endless. What’s even more satisfying is that after four years, my app has outcompeted the original one that inspired it. The developer of that app eventually stopped updating it, likely because they saw that mine was gaining more popularity. Now, I’m the only one in the market with this kind of app.
Lessons Learned: Just Start, and Let Things Grow
The biggest lesson I’ve learned from this experience is that you shouldn’t wait for the perfect moment or the perfect conditions to start something. Just begin. Start your projects, no matter how simple they are, and publish them. Let them grow organically over time. It doesn’t have to be a groundbreaking idea from the start—sometimes, the simplest projects can lead to unexpected success.
Whether it’s a calculator app, a website for a local restaurant, or something else entirely, creating something that provides real value is what matters. When people use your work and find it helpful, you’ll get the feedback and validation that motivates you to keep going. And over time, you’ll build things that not only help others but may also become financially rewarding.
So, if you’re facing obstacles or unsure where to begin—just start. Grind, put in the work, and you’ll eventually see results. You never know where your project might take you, but you’ll never find out if you don’t try.
