Exhausted and stuck on a high-potential project, what to do?

I'm on the same boat, I am thoroughly exhausted but I have adopted a glass half-full philosophy: this is the least popular my startup will ever be.

I have just launched, few people know about it, and even fewer are paying for it. While it's a decent MVP, it's still far away from my vision. Google barely knows about it, I have a lot of marketing to do, but the longer it stays online, necessarily the more people it will have reached. It might not go viral, but people still talk about and share good products, so the focus is to concentrate and making a good product. And, of course, marketing. ( I literally have just invented the idea of SEO Saturdays. No coding for me today!)

We chose the life, it's very tiring, I'm exploring the depths of being broke as shit, but remember, if you keep at it, time is on your side.

(Also quick hack: link your project, your blog, whatever in your HN profile. Every comment on this site is always bound to attract a few drive-by visitors.)

Perhaps take a break from everything you where doing for this project and spend some of that time looking for other people who are or could be as excited as you are about it.

They could be your first users, first collaborators, first customers, or first haters. Then maybe you won't feel all that weight of uncertainty upon you and you may have gathered enough energy and motivation to keep going.

Or it may prove worthless for anyone but you, which is perfect because you can be more relaxed about it and not think too much into or around it.

It is easier to get traction and positive feedback and find other people willing to help you out with their effort or time or money or other resources if you are doing something that can help them, that really solves a significant problem or pain point they have.

Reading between the lines, your use of the term "project" when talking about your endeavour suggests you are focused on your own ideas and vision, but perhaps you not focused on better understanding the group of people you will be helping, what their problems and challenges and priorities are. Take a break from your project, then when you are refreshed, spend some time talking to different communities of people who you believe you may be able to help. Ask them what their main problems are, or their priorities, and listen to what they say. Maybe there is something completely different you could focus on, that happens to be something they want enough to pay for.

There are two parts to a project. Your application and the marketing project for the app/site. It sounds like you have the application part done (or your first prototype) and put everything into it. Now the hard part is you need to tell people and try to connect on some level. Doing the second part involves a different skillset, time, effort. If you don't have it in you, go do something else. While you do that your brain will try to figure out the connect problem.

Try to share some information about your project and get feedback in a relevant and friendly community (like HN but there are others too). This could boost your motivation and maybe put you on the right track.

What’s the project? There are people here willing and open to helping but not disclosing what you’re working on is preventing them from doing so

What’s the project? Maybe someone will help you.