How a dead website taught me what Princeton researchers took years to prove
Do you know this website?
Am sure you don’t!
Don’t try to open it — it doesn’t exist anymore.
This is Newxweb — my first failed website from 2016.
Seeing it today on Wayback Machine hit me different.
You know that weird mix of happiness and thankfulness?
Like finding your old kindergarten drawing that your mom kept for 20 years.
Back then, I was the IT admin too shy to speak in meetings. Built this “genius” classified ads site for Udemy courses with ASP.NET (no AI to help, just me and my questionable coding skills).
The name Newxweb? Still have no idea why I picked it. Maybe I thought adding “x” made it cool. Spoiler: it didn’t!
Launch day results: Zero visitors. ZERO.
My marketing strategy?
Spam some Facebook groups like a complete amateur. Got maybe 3–4 clicks. Convinced a few people to list their courses for free. Then watched it die slowly.
I didn’t even know WordPress could do the same thing in minutes. That’s how clueless I was.
Fast forward to today — just came back from Spain two weeks ago with my family. Running 6+ projects that generate 6 figures annually. Not a millionaire, but I own my time (somehow) That’s the real win!
Today, I run these projects:
- LearnWithHasan — Where I teach building and selling digital products online
- Toolerbox — 40+ tools for developers, marketers, and builders (my favorite child, honestly)
- TubeDigest — YouTube video summaries powered by AI
- SimplerLLM — A Python package that makes AI integration actually simple
- ExplodingStartup — Database of validated business ideas (for people tired of brainstorming)
- SelfHostSchool — Teaching MLOps and DevOps without the headache
- Plus a YouTube channel with ~1M subscribers and Udemy courses with 100K+ students
Currently working on DeepArabic for AI research for Arabic language because apparently I don’t know when to stop.
None of these are revolutionary.
They just solve problems I had myself. or Something I was passionate about! That’s the whole secret.
But here’s what bugs me about our world today…
There’s research showing that doubling your income — whether from $10K to $20K or $100K to $200K — creates roughly the same happiness boost. Princeton studies found happiness improvements level off around $75–100K for most people.
Yet EVERYONE, regardless of income level, seems to chase that “double my revenue” goal!
It’s like we’re programmed to always want 2X of whatever we have!
I’m not playing angel here saying “forget money” — that’s BS. We all need money.
But when did doubling revenue become everyone’s life mission?
Money should be a step in your journey, not the destination.
Once you can pay bills, save some, travel a bit, and work on what you love — maybe that’s enough?
I look at Newxweb today and feel grateful.
Not because I’m “successful” now, but because that failure taught me something important:
the gap between failure and success is smaller than you think. It’s just about not quitting after your Newxweb moment.
If you’re sitting on your own “Newxweb” idea right now, just build it.
Even if it fails. Especially if it fails.
Because years later, you might be looking at it on Wayback Machine, feeling thankful for that beautiful disaster that started everything.
The world has become this weird economic race where everyone’s running but nobody knows where the finish line is.
Maybe we need that mental switch — from “I need to double this” to “what do I actually want from this ONE life?”
Because trust me, there’s more to discover in life than watching numbers go up.
P.S. — With AI and today’s tools, you don’t need 10 years like I did. You can probably do it in months. But the lessons? Those still take time.
if you smiled or nodded or got goosebumps, hit that clap button!
