I'm Sam. I learned by building.

You don't have to start with connections, a perfect plan, or a lot of money.

No engineering family. My dad worked in school-district IT and my mom was a nurse. My dad had a lot of random tools around, and I used them to build a whole lot of unfinished nothing out of whatever I could find.
I started after college. I earned a mechanical engineering degree, but I didn't seriously start hands-on building until after I graduated in 2021.
I built while broke. For about a year, I lived in a shared Airbnb because I couldn't afford an apartment of my own. I bought parts slowly with my first engineering paychecks and kept building wherever I lived.
Five years of experiments. I spent a few thousand dollars gradually on parts, prototypes, mistakes, and tools—not a big upfront budget.
Projects changed my career. Building projects gave me the skills and confidence to go from unemployed and earning $0, to a $90,000 engineering job, to earning more than $150,000 a year—all within three years of graduating college.

What I want you to take away: Start with a small version. Test it. Learn why it failed. Repeat. Your work is worth more than you think.