I set aside $10,000 and gave myself 18 months. The question is simple: can a regular person, with limited time and a normal job, build real recurring income using what's available to everyone right now?
Not dropshipping. Not a course about making courses. Money from strangers who found something genuinely worth paying for.
I have a day job. I'm not quitting it. I don't have connections, a following, or a system I'm pretending has been proven.
I'm staying anonymous because if I put my face on this, it becomes about personal brand. I don't want that. I want to know if the tools work when someone ordinary uses them, without any advantages that aren't available to you too.
Every dollar gets tracked, in and out. I'll publish real numbers every week, good weeks and bad. If I'm losing money, you'll see it in the spreadsheet. Full monthly financials, including the ugly parts.
Failures get documented like wins. Probably more, honestly, because that's where the interesting stuff is.
No selling to friends and family. If this only works because people I know feel sorry for me, it doesn't work.
I'm not betting everything on one idea. That's how you lose $10,000 in three months.
Instead I'm running a few small experiments at once. A service business using AI tools, a couple digital products, an SEO play that builds slowly, maybe a small software tool if I find a problem worth solving. Most will fail. Some might work. I'll find out which is which as fast as I can.
If this makes money, I split it three ways. A third goes back into the next experiment. A third goes to me, for my time. And a third gets donated.
Every quarter, I'll let you vote on where that third goes. And I'll publish the receipts. Not "I donated to charity." The actual receipt. The actual amount.
If I lose money, I eat the loss. That's on me.
I use AI tools constantly and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But every word that goes out has been read, edited, and approved by me. My judgment is behind it.
If you ask me something, I'll answer it. How something works, what it cost, why I made a decision. No dodging.
When things go wrong, that's the first thing I write about. Not the last. Not buried in a footnote three weeks later.
I won't go back and quietly edit old posts to make myself look smarter. What I said, I said. If I was wrong, I'll write a new post about being wrong.
If I recommend a tool and I make money from the link, you'll know.
If I decide to stop, I won't just go silent. I'll write the final post, tell you what happened, and close the books.
Real numbers or no numbers. I won't round up. I won't show revenue without showing costs.