Start Here: Engineering Your Wealth
I'm proving you can earn $1M online - without quitting your job or sacrificing your family. This is the map.
Hi! Welcome to Engineer of Wealth.
If you just subscribed - this is the one post that tells you what this place is, where to start reading, and what to do next.
I’m a software engineer who can build virutally anything, and is learning how to acquire skills other than that.
I’m NOT a guru claiming to know everything about money and wealth generation.
I believe that generating wealth is a problem to solve - with a systematic approach, and engineering principles.
I’m here to Prove The Point and document the journey. When I’ll succeed, you’ll be able to get there much faster.
The claim: $1,000,000 online
I’m on a quest to prove that you can earn $1M online by avoiding stupid mistakes and learning from others - without quitting your job, and without sacrificing your family on the way.
I track the progress on my $1M quest page, reserving each square for $1k earned:
Of course, it’s not that simple - there are hidden costs and taxes involved - so for simplicity, I track the secured assets from income over time.
Current status: 10% of the way there.
Read these first
The best entry points into the archive, depending on what brought you here:
My approach to wealth generation - why wealth is not just money: the four-part definition (money, health, freedom, wellbeing) this whole project optimizes for. Family first, money follows.
Compounding is the core engine - the single mechanism everything else here is built on: why some people rebuild from zero every few years, and others never have to.
Life is a badly designed game - the mental model behind it all: life runs on the same mechanics as games. Learn the rules, stack advantages, and build a game inside it that you can win. Push probability to your favour.
Building is solved, selling is not - if you’re a developer who ships things nobody buys, this one’s for you. I’m solving it in public, real numbers included.
Vibe coding is over + The prompt is the new typing - how AI actually changes a builder’s leverage.
What happens next
Three ways to go from here, depending on how deep you want in:
Read along (free). Deep essays and build logs - real numbers, honest post-mortems, no daily noise.
Ship something. If you’ve built things that never sold, the Ship & Sell Starter Kit ($29) is the system I wish I’d had: a 47-point checklist plus templates to launch your first digital product - in 14 days, or your money back.
Stuck before the idea? automateideasai.com generates validated product ideas matched to a real customer profile.
If I can ask you something…
Hit reply and tell me one thing: what are you building toward? And what’s the one thing that blocks you?
I read every reply, and those answers shape what I write next. I also love to connect with people with similar mindsets.
If you want to verify whether I’m legit before you invest your time here, feel free to read my story.
But there is a caveat!
I’m not here to encourage you to push hustle culture, sacrificing everything for money, just to realize you’re getting rich but you’ve lost the chance to build a fulfilling life on the way.
I’m here to prove that you don’t need to choose money OVER family or health - and I’ll use my engineering brain to show myself (and you too) how to do it. You don’t need to hate your boss and your 9-5 job to get compounding effects over time.
The idea is to build real wealth without losing your family, your health, or your principles on the way:
Clear constraints.
Solid architecture.
Long-term thinking.
Relentless iteration.
First I build it for myself, then I help 100 others do the same.
No hype. No lottery tickets. Just systems that compound.
Small experiments I’m learning on and sharing those learnings with you.
The story so far
2018 → 2023: The Udemy experiment
In 2018 I created a Udemy course that over time reached almost 4,000 students and generated around $14k of revenue.
It was a nice little experiment to check whether earning online is even an option. I had never earn a single $ before outside of the job I did on the daily basis.
Because I still had my day job, I saved this extra income, put it into my first investments, and set the rest aside for the next project. In this period, 2 of my kids were born. Eventually I switched my focus to the next initiative and closed the course due to the lack of time for maintanance.
2021 → 2025: Hanami Mastery
In 2021 I got fascinated by the Hanami Ruby framework - an extremely well-designed project that solved pain points the Ruby community hadn’t addressed for over a decade. The main problem though, was the lack of educational resources and the traction in the community.
I started learning the project deeply and immediately began recording video tutorials around it. This quickly turned into a very profitable little project, generating over $43k within a few years.
I’m proud of this project, though I couldn’t continue it due to personal reasons. This income I also did not need to spend because I did not drop my job - instead, I’ve accelerated career. In this period I’ve secured the role of Staff Engineer.
Instead, I invested thousands of hours into learning everything I could about investing.
2022 → … : The investing era
By understanding the psychology of markets and the assets I invest in, I generated over 300% profit between 2022 and 2025, focusing on Bitcoin (and Gold in the early days). I’ve secured half of the profits, leaving the rest in place, waiting for a price drop to repeat the play.
2026 → … : Engineer of Wealth
Over the years, I clearly did something right. I generated online savings crossing $100k - 10% of one million dollars - while having a 9-5 job, 3 homeschooled kids, and a lovely wife.
I also observed many people struggling with things that I did naturally.
So I’ve decided to do 3 things:
Make a claim.
Share what I know, do, and build.
Increase the pace.
That’s what this newsletter is.
Who I am
I’m Sebastian Wilgosz.
Professionally, I build distributed systems. I’ve worked with microservices, event sourcing, and automated payment systems. I understand scale, failure modes, and compounding effects. In recent years, as Staff Engineer, I’ve been close to anything happening in the AI world and its adoption.
Personally, I’m building toward financial independence while putting family first. I don’t want my wife to be forced into work. I want to educate my children deliberately. I want time and freedom without chaos.
I’m not selling a finished story. I’m documenting the build.
My edge isn’t charisma or extreme consistency. It’s synthesis.
I connect engineering, economics, psychology, and leverage into practical execution.
My core philosophy
1. Systems beat intensity. Grinding harder is not a strategy. Grind is cool and needed early, but at the end the good architecture and long play wins.
2. Sustainable beats impressive. I care more about 20 years of stability than 20 months of hype.
3. Wealth is engineered. It’s the output of compounding assets - skills, value given, products, assets, reputation.
4. Family is a design constraint, not a trade-off. If your plan requires sacrificing what matters most, redesign the plan.
5. Public accountability accelerates growth. I build in the open. Wins, mistakes, pivots.
The goal is not “rich” nor “retire early”. The goal is financial independence, a strong marriage, present fatherhood, and work chosen - not required. This is a 10-year build, and compounding rewards patience.
See you inside,
Seb
P.S. If you’ve read all the way down here, you’re exactly who I’m writing for. So seriously - hit reply and tell me: what are you building toward, and what’s standing in the way? I read every one.