Around 6 months ago, just one day before my vacation was about to start, I got some not-so-great news that I could be let go from my full-time job.

What an amazing way to start my break…I simply couldn’t really relax and enjoy my vacation.

I really needed to keep my mind occupied. And to me, coding is like ritual or meditation—headphones on, coding, and everything else just fades away.

With all the new AI advancements, I thought it could be the perfect distraction, so I decided to take on a personal 10-day #buildinpublic challenge on X and YouTube to ship something — anything! (You can binge-watch the entire saga on YouTube)

I decided to create a tool that helps non-designers create social media carousels for LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok using AI.

The truth is, www.aiCarousels.com almost didn’t happened. I wasn’t really sure about the idea. But I needed to take my mind off the potential job cuts.

I was thinking that worst case scenario, I just lose 10 days, and I still could think about something else and learn a thing or two! 🤷‍♂️

Looking back, that first version makes me cringe a bit… but fast forward to today, and I couldn’t be happier with how things unfolded.

Sure, I lost my FT job, but it also marked the end of my search for a conventional 9-to-5.

What started as a simple project to keep my mind distracted now brings in $5,000 in MRR.

And here’s the thing – I had no formal coding education.If you were to peek at my code, you’d probably burst out laughing.

But that just goes to show one thing: If I could pull it off, so can you.

With all the no-code and AI tools available, there has never been a better time to start a project.

If you’ve been waiting for a “sign” to finally start, perhaps this is it!