I believe that you could call this epiphany a change of perception. To his kid, the world is a challenge, and the opinion of others (or the perception of opinions of others), ego, reputation don't matter. Failing, in this new light, does not matter; it is simply the fastest way to discover one less way to try the next time.
Say, for instance, public speaking. We are all familiar with the feeling of fear when speaking in front of a group. However, going on stage and trying different stuff, is (quickly) going to get you better at speaking. I could watch a million YouTube movies about public speaking, but actually trying and failing is the shortest way to getting actually better at it. Only when analyzing what could go better, watching those movies can provide valuable input for a next try (asking an expert is even better). The thing is: negativity and fear (of criticism) often gets the better of us, way before we fail enough to succeed. This often when we hear: "I'm just not a natural born speaker" and stop trying. - Guess what, almost no-one is. Just don't be afraid to fail.
I think this is entirely the point: How do you improve or change your environment so that it 'fits' you?
What does fit you? I hear many people say a certain level of salary would make them happy. Or that sportscar they always dreamt of. Just 5 more years of climbing the corporate ladder and then it's all wonderful from there. However, when you talk to them 5-10 years later, when some of them achieved those goals, they still do not seem to 'fit'; they have bigger and better goals now. Once they achieve those, they will be truly happy! It's a rat race.
My opinion, and since adopting it I see it everywhere, is that the outer does not change the inner, but rather it is the inner that changes the outer. Take, for example, this part of Jobs' famous Stanford Commencement Address: "[After being fired from Apple] I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over. I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me."
Notice what changes first; he did not start working on Pixar and NEXT from his feeling of failure nor from a need to change his environment to get his brainchild back. He changed his inner mental state first to accept reality, figure what is truly important, and follow his heart. The environment changed as a result. Once he saw the pure crushing failure of being fired from his own creation, as an positive opportunity to pursue the things he loved to do, it opened new paths unimagined by his negative self. The inner changed the outer.
Happy, for me, is a deep sense of belonging. It's about acceptance, perspective, creativity and finding interest and passion. The inside and outside will never disconnect; it's life, the one cannot exist without the other.
Fears are a strange bunch. I have only recently really become aware of my own fears, and now that I see them for what they are (most of the time). Even being aware of your fears seems to be quite rare. Let alone be commited to facing them instead of making up alibis and creating their own state of limbo.
Recently, I have starting 'fighting' my fears by noticing them in the first place ("Why dont I call X/do Y/commit to Z"), then by asking myself: "Why am I fearing X?". Most of the times it is some irrational thought about rejection, failure, lack of money, even success ("If I do it, I'm commited and dont have time for all the other things I'm afraid to do"). It's all bullcrap. 9 out of 10 times, when you do the thing you fear, it does not pan out the way you imagined, and the other time it teaches you something invaluable. I'm starting to think that by framing every thought you have in the most positive way and by closing your mind from negative influences from others AND YOURSELF, you can conquer any fear. I think this is closely related to the authors point: your self-worth should have nothing to do with what other people think of you and/or how your enterprises turn out. You and you alone control your mind/thoughts, and therefor your happiness. If you fearlessly and with 'passion' do the things that you think are right, make and learn from mistakes, truly believe in and commit to your goal, then congratulate yourself. You're already doing more than almost all of the people I know.
How about: the security provided by an unconditional roof over my head and food on the table allows me to use my abilities in problem-solving and creativity, according to Maslow's hierarchy. [1]
And the knowledge that the goals and demands of actual users (in this case, teachers) are vastly different from the demands of techno-geeks like us.
It's pretty difficult to see the world through your users' eyes instead of your own, but Patrick seems to do this on a regular basis, which I find quite inspiring.
This reminds me very much of the Carol Dweck's theory on the Fixed and Growth Mindset[1].
I too, was raised on a Fixed Mindset; "You're not good at math/physics/chemistry? That's ok, I'm sure you have other skills.". This caused me some level of discomfort in trying new things (which are necessary for any sort of growth) because at some point I could just reach 'the end of the road' and the limit of 'talent'. This has often caused me to avoid new and challenging things altogether.
Since a year or so I've been trying to adapt the Growth Mindset by interrupting my thought process when I feel this discomfort and (often literally) say to myself that it is not the outcome that matters, but the chance to improve your skills and extend your abilities. Failure is not about you and it should just be a trigger to try harder; the road does not end. I still fall in the same traps I used to, but I've said Yes to more (challenging) things this year than any other year and I haven't 'failed' nearly as much as I thought I would, nor did the failures have the impact I feared them to have. Growth really is a marvelous (and endless) thing.
I actually like to add an intermediary step between the landing page and the e-mail form: a "Create an account/Buy now for $X/month/year" button. When people click on it, they get a "Sorry, we're not done yet, but give us your email and you will be notified once we release" + the email form.
Not only do you know people are potentially willing to pay X dollars for your product, you can also do a multivariate test on different amounts or pricing schemes to see if they convert differently, giving you some rough idea how much your idea is worth to them. I always add a "Make an account for FREE" as well, as a baseline.
It's probably just me, but I can't help feeling it's a bit underhand to offer something for sale that doesn't exist yet (unless you make it clear upfront).
You could put up a separate pricing page to see how many people click through to it, and then look at hovers to see where they linger... But that's obviously going a bit deeper than the original idea of slapping up a single page to gauge interest.
I believe Erik Ries said much of the same thing in a talk I saw once (can't find it now, of course). The gist of it was that nobody likes to get angry, and angry customers are therefor especially important because they actually care enough about your product to get angry at you for screwing it up.
Ouch. It looks like they've got the skills and marketing figured out. I think there's a great lesson in there for all of us freelancers.