> "Hoping to be accepted into YC (for example) could provide a good motivation boost."
YC should not affect your motivation at all!
It sounds like your goal is not to start a successful business, but to be accepted into YC. This brings up two things.
1) If you don't seem dedicated and committed to an idea, you are not an attractive investment. Anyone reviewing your application is likely to pass. Investors look for people that will succeed without them. What will your motivation be in the case that you are accepted into YC? Why do you equate YC with success?
2) Don't even think about YC right now. Like with all deals, you should assume it won't happen until after it is set in stone. You can avoid the discouragement and de-motivation that comes with rejection by keeping your focus on the most important thing, the improvement of your product.
> "...the projects I finished successfully (most I didn't finish) usually took too long, and did not reach the scope I was hoping for."
You need to finish a project by yourself. Start small if you have to, but the only thing that matters is that you finish something that you start. I think this will help your confidence and help you get out of this pattern. Don't get discouraged if it doesn't turn out the way you had hoped, but don't let it drag on forever if there doesn't seem to be potential.
> "I suppose the obvious path to take is to work on a demo day and night, and anyway, giving up is not an option..."
I suggest reading some 37signals on this one. Just because you work on something day and night does not mean it is time well spent, and sometimes giving up is indeed the best option.
On a side note, don't get your identity in your achievements, failures, or age. You are never too old or too much of a failure to do anything.
My primary goal is not to get into YC, but the odds of making it probably have an effect on how I will spend my time untill the application deadline. Maybe that was the main reason for my post, to figure out if focussing on the YC application even makes sense. I do believe that YC would increase my chances of success by a big factor.
I think it wouldn't be a loss to focus on the application, because whether I would be accepted or not, I would make progress with my project/startup. But without the YC application, I would probably choose different projects. For example smaller targets or less "sexy" projects. Maybe I would finish my old projects instead of starting a "YC potential project".
This kind of "double-win"-thinking might be a frequent cause of my downfall, because I don't focus on the most important point: what do I really want to do. Instead, all the decision factors might get too confusing in the end.
I take your point and will try decide on my favorite project irrespective of it's imagined YC potential.
> "Hoping to be accepted into YC (for example) could provide a good motivation boost."
YC should not affect your motivation at all!
It sounds like your goal is not to start a successful business, but to be accepted into YC. This brings up two things.
1) If you don't seem dedicated and committed to an idea, you are not an attractive investment. Anyone reviewing your application is likely to pass. Investors look for people that will succeed without them. What will your motivation be in the case that you are accepted into YC? Why do you equate YC with success?
2) Don't even think about YC right now. Like with all deals, you should assume it won't happen until after it is set in stone. You can avoid the discouragement and de-motivation that comes with rejection by keeping your focus on the most important thing, the improvement of your product.
> "...the projects I finished successfully (most I didn't finish) usually took too long, and did not reach the scope I was hoping for."
You need to finish a project by yourself. Start small if you have to, but the only thing that matters is that you finish something that you start. I think this will help your confidence and help you get out of this pattern. Don't get discouraged if it doesn't turn out the way you had hoped, but don't let it drag on forever if there doesn't seem to be potential.
> "I suppose the obvious path to take is to work on a demo day and night, and anyway, giving up is not an option..."
I suggest reading some 37signals on this one. Just because you work on something day and night does not mean it is time well spent, and sometimes giving up is indeed the best option.
On a side note, don't get your identity in your achievements, failures, or age. You are never too old or too much of a failure to do anything.