Skill issue: How to Master anything 10x faster, without looking stupid
Tags: beginners, productivity, career, learning
Published: 2024-03-05 11:48:52

Yes, the frustration with beginners is a common sentiment, and it's natural. Don't cast blame for this inclination, as we've all likely experienced it ourselves. Don't lie, you've probably been in a domain where you found beginners annoying because you possess a higher level of expertise.

If you haven't, well, sucks to be you.

However, it's essential to recognize that grappling with the challenges of being a beginner is not only part of the learning journey but also a significant aspect of personal growth. In this article, we delve into the various frustrations that accompany the beginner's journey and explore why acknowledging and addressing these frustrations are essential for anyone striving to advance their skills and knowledge.

So, let's explore the intricacies of navigating the beginner phase and uncover valuable insights that will propel you forward in your learning endeavors:



**1. Lack of Knowledge:**

Being a beginner often means grappling with a lack of fundamental knowledge, and let's face it, it can be frustrating—for both you and those you're trying to learn from. When you're just starting out, you might have big aspirations, but breaking them down into actionable steps feels like trying to solve a Rubik's Cube blindfolded.

Beginners are unconscious of their incompetence, this often results to the embarrassment of asking what seem like dumb questions—I've been there, done that, and still occasionally do.

_Case in point_: a few years back, I actually had the audacity to ask a Google employee if I could shoot an email to Bill Gates to sort out my Windows 7 activation key drama. I feel so ashamed, but it serves as a reminder that even the pros were once clueless novices.

You need to ask questions to gain knowledge, even if they might be stupid.

Be thankful for tools like chatGPT, unlike those days, you can now safely ask your stupid questions and the only people that'll laugh at you are the engineers at openai.

_**Getting knowledge from people without looking stupid**_

Now, there're things you'll only be able to learn/get from people, and you may need to approach them for this kind of things (but only this kinds of things). When it comes to reaching out to others for help, it's all about the give and take. People are more likely to lend a hand with tricky problems that offer some sort of mutual benefit. So, before you hit someone up for advice, think about what's in it for them?

If your question doesn't help them or interest them, you should ask chatGPT instead, cause chatGPT doesn't have better things to do.

_**Fear of looking stupid**_

It's totally normal. But here's the thing—owning up to your ignorance is the first step toward wisdom. After all, everyone starts out as a newbie, and exposing our lack of expertise is just part of the journey to becoming a bona fide expert.

Are you afraid of reaching out to people because you're worried about coming off as dumb? Lmao, if you go back to the fundamentals, the reason you're afraid of looking dumb is simply because you're dumb—as far as that topic is concerned.

And sooner or later, your lack of skill in that field will be exposed. So it doesn't matter anyway, better to expose it carefully and quickly gain knowledge.



**2. Impatience:**

Patience, as they say, is a virtue, but let's be real—it's a tough pill to swallow, especially when you're knee-deep in the trenches of learning something new. Whether it's mastering a skill, hitting a financial milestone, or waiting for the next installment of your favorite series, impatience often rears its head.

Think about it: would you rather wait for my next article, knowing it'll drop at 3:00 PM sharp next Monday, or be left hanging with a vague promise of "sometime next month"? Exactly. Having a clear timeline makes patience a lot easier.

Can you summon the patience of a saint while chasing that elusive dream? It's a tough ask, especially when the path to success is shrouded in uncertainty. You see, you can't calculate the exact moment when you'll hit that milestone because, well, you haven't walked that path yet. It's a catch-22: you need the knowledge to achieve the goal, but you won't truly grasp that knowledge until you've achieved the goal. Confusing, right?

For instance, you don't know how long precisely it'll take you to make your first billion, because you don't have the knowledge required, and when you have the knowledge required, you should've already made the billion, cause that's the only way to know you've gained enough knowledge on how to make your first billion.

If you think you know how to make your first billion and you haven't done it, any story you tell yourself as _why you haven't_, represents a knowledge gap that you need to fill in other to get closer to the true knowledge required to make the billion.

Every obstacle standing between you and your goal is a lesson waiting to be learned. It's all part of the journey, my friend. Embrace the uncertainty, relish the challenge, and remember—the road to success isn't a straight line; it's a winding path filled with twists, turns, and occasional detours.

As a beginner, you're anxious because you can't seem to fill the gap between where you are and where you want to be; because you don't have the knowledge required.

The more you acquire knowledge, the path ahead gets a little clearer, a little brighter. The road gets clearer as you move closer to the end of a tunnel, the light from the end would brighten up the path, although there's no exact "end of the tunnel" per se, learning is a lifelong journey (at least, that's what it's meant to be).

So, instead of fixating on the destination, focus on the journey itself. The journey is the destination. Enjoy the process, relish the challenges, and savor the small victories along the way. After all, it's the uncertainty that makes the journey worthwhile. If success were guaranteed, where would be the fun in that?

It's the uncertainty that makes patience difficult, if success is guaranteed at specific timeframes, many lazy people would start putting in work.

When you start seeing the light, you've gotten to the stage where you're conscious of your incompetence.

You can now clearly see your limitations and the difficulty of the skill you're trying to acquire. This is the stage of awakening.

This is the stage where 29% of people begin to slack off and 70% give up.

But if you've read this far, I know that's not you.

**3. Fear of failure:**

Getting things done is the best way to learn, but you can't get anything done without failing at first.

_Failing is the only way to know the right thing to learn next._

Many people just stick to lower-order learning; memorizing and storing facts and figures in their brain without ever putting it into practice, thinking they know a lot, this can cause the Dunning Kruger effect.

For those who don't know, the Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias that causes people to overestimate their abilities, leading to a false sense of confidence. In other words, they think they know it all when, in reality, they barely scratch the surface.

But here's the truth: the only way to truly learn is to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. Knowledge is only valuable when it's put into action. Otherwise, it's just useless trivia cluttering up your brain.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/zhbdwzqqg19yiepp483l.jpeg)

_Do you want to stack knowledge or do you want to stack results?_

There's a popular saying in my environment that "no knowledge is waste". I don't believe that's true. Knowledge can absolutely waste if you don't use it.

The saying must have originated from the dopamine people get when some random thing they knew in the past saves them.

Well, yeah, random knowledge can help sometimes. But would you rather keep accumulating knowledge and hoping it comes handy and pray that the knowledge you have will somehow luckily make you successful or are you going to take active steps to make sure you're in control of your success. It'll surprise you how many people still don't choose the later.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/rczg3q28hj0ts7weo1lv.jpg)

Life is not a school exam where regurgitating facts and figures will earn you an **A**, you're wasting time if you're learning anything you're not applying. Life is a hands-on, action-packed adventure where success is reserved for those willing to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty.

You need to do more, not know more.
Instead of picking out a new book, do what you read in the previous one. Reading this article will give you information, but it's practicalizing the information that leads to transformation.

If you want to learn 10x faster and achieve in months what takes others years to achieve, _you need to learn how to learn._

Instead of learning without purpose, do this instead:

- Understand the fundamentals
- Outline a project to solve a problem you have, or basic stuff others are solving for starters
- Start building the project
- Learn along the way



**4. Overeagerness:**

It's like trying to sprint before you've even learned to crawl. It can be exciting to dive headfirst into something new, but don't get ahead of yourself.

When beginners are too eager to prove themselves, they often overlook crucial instructions and skip key fundamentals in their rush to make a splash. It's like trying to build a house without laying the foundation first—you're setting yourself up for failure.

The root of the problem? _**Too much emotion and not enough rational thinking**_. It's great to be passionate, but when your emotions cloud your judgment, you're headed for disaster. Instead of daydreaming about all the possibilities, wake up and focus on the cold, hard truth of reality. Trust me, it's not as glamorous, but it's where the real work gets done.

So, here's the deal: strive to be humble and level-headed. Keep your cards close to your chest—don't let your emotions give you away. Whether someone offers you $1 or $1 million, keep a poker face. Showing your emotions might help in relationships, but in business? Not so much.

When people understand you a lot in your relationships, communication becomes easier. When people understand you a lot in business, manipulation becomes easier 

In business, emotions can play a complex role. While understanding and empathy are valued in personal relationships, in the business world, they can sometimes be perceived as vulnerabilities to exploit. If you come across as desperate, don't be surprised if the other party takes advantage of the situation, perhaps by increasing the price. It's crucial to maintain professionalism and composure in business dealings to avoid being manipulated, while still recognizing the importance of genuine connection and empathy, albeit in a different context.

Keep your emotions in check, and you'll learn very effectively without looking stupid.



**5. Inconsistency:**

Most people are lazy and only do what they want when they want.

>I have this law; _If you spend more time not doing something than you spend on consistently doing it, you're reversing and wasting the effort you've put in the past._

To me, speed is the most important factor for winning, how fast can you get this quality thing done? That's what matters.

Many people say "smart work beats hardwork", I don't think that's what matters, "fast work will always win" (remember, I said it first)

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/er4xf5iiz4zb6wcpoqbu.png)

The only reason smart work can beat hard work is because it's faster. It's smart to figure out a fast way of getting something done well. It's speed that matters more. When you're inconsistent, you lose momentum.

If someone is going hard consistently, and you're going smart slowly, he/she will have more results cause they're faster.

Strive to work hard, smart and fast.



**6.Too Shy for success:**

Many people like to use the ridiculous excuse that they're an introvert and they cannot put themselves out there for opportunities because of their "nature".

That's bullshit, being social is a skill, not a personality, you need to develop your social skills to make your creativity valuable. Having a creative skill isn't enough to become successful, you need complimentary skills to get the most of it; the art of persuasion.

You might technically have the best skill in something, but if people don't know you, it's useless. You have so much value that's as unique as your face, and if you don't get people to notice it, you can't give the value to anybody.

Sometimes, you may see people that're not as skilled as you enjoying opportunities you don't have, simply because they networked, not always because it's easier for them.

In the old days, for you to succeed, you'd obviously still need connections, but to get those connections, you needed to study hard and get to the best schools to meet the best people, you needed money to travel long distances to see celebrities and successful people that may or may not listen to you, so you have to step out your comfort zone, work on your charisma and make yourself presentable if you really want to be successful. Today, you can send any celebrity a DM thanks to the internet (some people still don't know the significance of this, unfortunately, it's almost as if they're sleeping).

_**Take advantage of the internet.**_

Sell yourself from the beginning, don't be afraid to come off as a beginner, don't be afraid and think some people may think you're stupid or basic. Lemme show you something:

Look at this twitter/𝕏 account.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/uklxf1g6cfznt1ph1vqu.jpg)

it literally just posts "the year is x% complete", nothing else, and it has 1.3M followers. I'm currently at… Follow me on twitter later 🥺.

> Royal Lesson: We're like over 5,300,500,000 people on the internet, it doesn't matter if you're basic, there're still people out there that'll love what you do, and you're obliged to reach them no matter what.

Most people that'll hate on your basic content are probably jealous that they had the same ideas or knowledge but where not courageous enough to put it out.

Don't wait for when you become a master before you start putting yourself out there.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/k4asnioh5gafj8v0idvi.jpeg)

_It's lonely at the top and crowdy in the trenches._


People love it more when they can relate, the lower you are, the more people can relate and admire your growth. As you reach top 1%, it gets lonelier and harder to find people to relate with.

Many people are looking for assurances that they can reach their goals, that they can become great: "If this person can manifest this inspite of his/her challenges, surely I can too! Just let me learn how they did it first".

So essentially my point is, guru's are extremely valuable, but you'll easily learn from someone that's closer to your level, maybe 1-10 steps ahead, the closer the easier.

For example, there's a lot I learn from Elon musk, but I learn more from my current mentors in my network, because they're "accessible".

The person may be an expert in the field, but if he/she isn't accessible, he/she cannot give you advice that is personalized to your particular situation.

You might be listening to some great YouTuber, and the person might give accurate advice, but your situation might be an exception to those facts, there might be nuances that'll make those things not work.

Then you might end up concluding that what the person says is nonsense (I'm not saying everyone is always correct though).

You're more accessible at the bottom of the pyramid. Use that to your advantage.

One of the problems I think celebrities have is that they're usually bombarded with lots of people trying to "access" them, they don't have enough time or energy to attend to everyone. But you do, and that's something you have that Elon Musk doesn't, use it to your advantage to climb the pyramid.

>Offer value to people through your accessibility in order to become someone that's incredibly hard to access; the value you give will get so incredibly valuable that it'll be hard for beginners or people at the bottom of the pyramid to get it.

You can put your expertise out there and charge extra for upclose and personal connections.

I hope this was helpful, I'm Praise and I help people make money from their creativity, [subscribe to my newsletter](https://tbk.beehiiv.com) (The Business Kingmaker) to get more fresh perspectives on how to make money printing systems from your creativity. I create more opportunities for people to earn more through my projects and the likes, and my newsletter is a great way to connect with me and learn more about my projects.

Make sure you forward and share this piece to the annoying beginners that are bugging you. Peace ✌️