What They Should Have Taught Me About Learning Backwards

It took me a good portion of my adult life to unlearn the fallacy that studying had to precede learning.

The notion of ‘you can never plan enough’ was ingrained in me so viscerally that it still attempts to hold me back today.

Thankfully, most of my learning now comes retrospectively, after throwing myself bare at the problem.

Real-world issues are always shifting and evolving. We can’t simply rely on yesterday’s advice for today’s problems.

Most people we learn from also teach us retrospectively.

Whether it be authors, CEOs or motivational speakers, they don’t hypothesise, they base their teachings on real-world experiences that have been lived through. That’s why we trust them.

We don’t learn to swim by reading a textbook. We learn by jumping in the water.

You can’t teach someone how to control their breathing whilst submerged underwater or how to avoid panicking at sea. These are things you learn to do after the fact.

Similarly, over-planning our business and creator strategies only gives us speculative knowledge. Real understanding comes when tried and tested.

So don’t speculate on the answers. Figure them out for yourself.

Don’t study without getting your hands dirty. Dig through the dirt and find your own gems.

Everything you need to know lies after your own obstacles.

Get around them, then learn backwards.