What skills should I learn in 2024 ?

[Antifragile]

I genuinely didn't understand your point and asked you to elaborate, then presented my opinion.
Does that make me arrogant?

Everyone is giving practical advice to progress as an entrepreneur and you're telling a 17 year old to learn "operations" and "capitalization" without elaborating.

You are probably facing limiting beliefs when you say that you "need X to do Y".

It feels like that, that you must become an engineer to own an engineering company. Or that you must become a programmer to create the next tech breakthrough on the "internet".

It's the same limited thinking that most people get stuck with when it comes to money and wealth.

We often think and give advice to others "make the money, then you can start a business".

Questions I have to counter that are simple:

1. Why does it have to be your money?
2. Why does it have to be your technical skill?

What if you started thinking "Who, not How?"

I promise you this, you will get the experience you need right after you needed it.

Hello, I am 17 years old and I want to start a business in the next 3-4 years. Since I currently dont have the capital and I go to college, I cannot start a business. Therefore, I want to learn a skill or two that will help me in the future. I would really be delighted if you can suggest some skills to learn that will help me in the future. I thought of learning coding but unfortunately I dont have a good device that supports the coding apps and etc. So please suggest me some skills to learn!

Here are some goals worth striving for:

• Freedom of Time
• Freedom of Money
• Freedom of Relationship
• Freedom of Purpose

To get there think of evolution. Evolution works by trial and error, not by planning.

The skills you want should emerge not from advice on an Internet forum with bickering members (with all the respect I have for those who do great things in life!). It should come from your own experimentation, trial and error.

When you try to do something but can't we discover missing skills and start filling those gaps. That's why you will get the experience you need right after you needed it.

The point is to learn how to build WEALTH.

What is the difference between money and wealth?
Money is just a means of transporting wealth.

Wealth is not limited and it is creating from nothing and has no bounds.

For example, as software programmer can create a new app that is truly valuable, it takes away nothing from the world, nothing from the society but it makes wealth.

The programmer wealthier because he or she can sell it as a service or a product.

The whole world is wealthier because now more people have access to a useful program that is valuable to everybody. It did not take away anything from anyone.

From that perspective, there is no limit to wealth. It is a way of creating something, inventing something. This concept applies to everything, including high end art which has more of a subjective value.

Your question is very general because you are young and looking for steps to success. It's frustrating to hear that there are no direct steps, just like evolution does't have direct steps.

In summary: start doing things. You will quickly discover missing skills. Fill those gaps. Continue to experiment and gain new skills. What can you do today that would bring value to someone else (help them) so much they'd be willing to pay you?


Edit:

A quote to help you see it another way

You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path.
— STEVE JOBS

 

[Kak]

Selling your skills for money is not scalable. It’s limited by time.

Real entrepreneurship demands scale where your time is not related directly to your income.

The best skills that support the goal of scale (actual entrepreneurship) are communication, operations, leadership, sales, and capitalization.

 

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[mikecarlooch]

Sales and marketing

Learn to sell

As someone who's wasted a lot of time reading, I feel like this advice needs to be taken a step further:

Reading about sales and marketing will do you nothing

Selling and marketing through trial and error will get you knowledge you can't be trained for

 

[Kak]

I genuinely didn't understand your point and asked you to elaborate, then presented my opinion.
Does that make me arrogant?

Everyone is giving practical advice to progress as an entrepreneur and you're telling a 17 year old to learn "operations" and "capitalization" without elaborating.

You’re right. Learning is soooooper hard.

Members used to be here for entrepreneurship. Not to F*ck around with self employment until they “feel” ready.

Now it is “fact” around here that you “need” a bastard child business/job where you sell your time first to start a business someday (which means never).

Thanks for the input. I hope the op doesn’t listen.

 

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[Kak]

Copywriting?

What do you think @Kak ?

Yep. Great idea.

Figure out whether you like Gulfstream or Dassault jets.

 

[Kak]

I'm not sure where you're coming from.
Why do you think I have this limiting belief? I don't

K

Honestly? In a certain sense, finding my partners and employees was a matter of luck. I have no clue how it happened, hence I cannot replicate it.

Finding my fiancée was also a matter of luck. I cannot replicate it. (I'm not talking here about the development of the relationship, but the start of it – that's what I can't replicate).

Neither of those responses are helpful though for someone looking for a fiancée or partners/employees.

Let me put the question differently. If somehow all your skills, money and connections were taken away from you, what would you do?

You'd have to do something right?

So what would that be?

Would you make a list of the biggest companies in your city and seek for a job?
Would you open Upwork and apply for a freelancing job?
Would you find a conference about something that interests you and attend?
Would you attend events at the Chamber of Commerce?
Would you read the newspaper looking for opportunities?

What would you do to "figure it out" as you put it?

That’s a whole new thread and something I’m willing to explore.

That said, it’s not a roadmap, it’s just one way. You said it yourself, you don’t even know how to replicate what you did. Neither do I. I just made the best decisions I could when I made them.

If I started over with nothing I would get likely get different results. I would probably even be in a different industry. Who knows.

But I’ll think of dissertation on what I would do if I was put in an undercover billionaire situation. That said, it will only be helpful as an example. Not a roadmap.

For now, just know that I believe if you want to be an entrepreneur, you should start trying to be one. Don’t talk yourself out of it with a bunch of bullshit limiting cupcake beliefs.

 

[Kak]

So how do you find proper partners if you're broke and starting from scratch? Not trying to be sarcastic atm, genuinely serious question.

I found a partner, for example, by writing copywriting (again, no sarcasm, this is for real). Being in the trenches together, helped us become friends.

I found employees and collaborators after having money, and being able to offer something to them in return.

You’re almost as bad as cupcake.

You know as well as I do, in entrepreneurship the answer to every “how do I do that” question is to just figure it out.

That is literally what separates the genius of an entrepreneur from the stagnant obedience of a lifelong employee.

Lean into that difference. That’s the difference that pays.

Figure it out, or suck.

 

[MTF]

That’s a whole new thread and something I’m willing to explore.

That said, it’s not a roadmap, it’s just one way. You said it yourself, you don’t even know how to replicate what you did. Neither do I. I just made the best decisions I could when I made them.

If I started over with nothing I would get likely get different results. I would probably even be in a different industry. Who knows.

But I’ll think of dissertation on what I would do if I was put in an undercover billionaire situation.

I'm looking forward to this thread.

 

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[f.laengle]

Learn to sell

 

[mikecarlooch]

3 months of D2D sales & 3 months of B2B Telesales is probably a great way to learn sales while making money along the way.

that's too hard, i rather read 100m offers all day and spend the rest of my time feel euphoric about how i'll "eventually" use the information

 

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[Kak]

Selling your skills is a practical way to learn the skills you mentioned.

Being sarcastic doesn't make you right. You're allowed to actually explain and elaborate instead of acting like you know everything.

What practical advice can you give OP to learn those skills you mentioned? How can he go about acquiring those skills?

You sure have a way with people.

I need to add that to my communication playbook. Shit on them first. Argue with them. Expend literally zero effort trying to seek some ways to learn new things on your own. Then later, demand “practical” advice like you are entitled to it. Got it. That’s 2024 nEtwoRking.

I hate to break it to you cupcake, but entrepreneurs don’t need their hand held either.

I’m not the one acting like I know everything. I presented an opinion based on experience. Folks are now free to seek proficiency in those areas or not.

The irony is, your theories suit your mindset and limiting beliefs well.

 

[wade1mil]

Keep in mind that you learn when you do, not when you read. I would read 5-10 books on one topic at a time, and then do what is taught so you can truly learn the skills for your future self. If all you do is read, I promise that you will regret it later.

Networking, people skills, sales, marketing (advertising, copywriting, content creation, social media), and how to utilize AI.

Man, I wish I was 17 again.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

That’s a whole new thread and something I’m willing to explore.

That said, it’s not a roadmap, it’s just one way. You said it yourself, you don’t even know how to replicate what you did. Neither do I. I just made the best decisions I could when I made them.

If I started over with nothing I would get totally different results. I would probably be in a totally different industry. Who knows.

But I’ll think of dissertation on what I would do if I was put in an undercover billionaire situation.

Cool, I'm looking forward. If I had to start from scratch again, I'd be super depressed. Like I probably wouldn't leave bed for several days depressed. Because I know how hard it is

Imo, success is easy after you find your groove. Finding your groove though... I'm glad I *fingers crossed* will never have to do that again.

 

[random_username]

Yes, capitalization makes a business bigger than just you and your personal resources immediately. I even define it as getting proper partners that can help you go big faster. You’re better capitalized when you can say yes to bigger business.

Most self employed couldn’t say yes to a million dollars of anything. There’s not enough time or value to sell.

Capitalization deals with that. Big partner with big money selling big orders with a big supply ability.

I view capitalization as resource collection not just investor money.

I definitely feel triggered by this comment and the one above about self employment. I didn't consciously think about capitalization being a skill at all up until now. My mindset for a few years was black and white - bootstrap everything by yourself vs take investor money. Nothing in between. And I took out investors out of the picture, because of some experiences, so that left bootstrapping as the only option. But after I read your comments I suddenly have many ideas for the gray area in between. Thank you for taking the time to write this.

 

[MakeItHappen]

As someone who's wasted a lot of time reading, I feel like this advice needs to be taken a step further:

Reading about sales and marketing will do you nothing

Selling and marketing through trial and error will get you knowledge you can't be trained for

3 months of D2D sales & 3 months of B2B Telesales is probably a great way to learn sales while making money along the way.

 

[MakeItHappen]

Members used to be here for entrepreneurship. Not to F*ck around with self employment until they “feel” ready.

Now it is “fact” around here that you “need” a bastard child business/job where you sell your time first to start a business someday (which means never).

I can't say I disagree. I have noticed this too.

 

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[MarxMelencio]

@Mtaz,

[SNIP]
I would really be delighted if you can suggest some skills to learn that will help me in the future.
[/SNIP]

The ability to design rational thought experiments.
• That's the most useful skill that I learned throughout the years for future-proofing anything.

I continue to get great value in using that to iteratively deconstruct, customize, test, tweak, scale, and morph any concept.
• In any field. For any task. In any conditional situation.

** For that skill to be useful, I continue to invest the rarest, most valuable commodity of all = Time.

I mean, think about it.
• Just by looking at an arbitrary model, you'll be able to understand how it works.
** And customize it to best suit a different use case. In a different field. To hit different targets.

That's any model. For example:
• Any business model. Any sales strategy. Any marketing technique. Any conversion tactic.

And there's no better way to learn that skill than to practice. Here's what I do:
• Imagine a goal. Imagine solutions to achieve that goal. Imagine ways to tailor-fit 'em for a particular starting point.
** Think of problems to solve along the way. Think of strategies to avoid or reduce negative impact.
** Visualize the deployment of scaling methods. Visualize the execution of expansion plans.
• And iteratively run it all in your mind. While creatively changing fields, goals, and use cases.

Best of luck!

 

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[MakeItHappen]

Selling skills is not scalable. It’s limited by time.

Real entrepreneurship demands scale where your time is not related directly to your income.

The best skills that support the goal of scale are communication, operations, leadership, sales and capitalization.

delete

 

[Kak]

But don't sales skills improve your communication skills? Also, I think that a good salesperson has an easier time becoming a good leader than someone with zero sales skills. And sales skills are useful for HR and raising money as well.

Also, in sales jobs (which are a good way to learn sales and save up some capital), it's not hard to get into a position where you can build up or manage a sales team which exposes you to leadership experience.

You misread my comment.

“Selling skills” as in selling your skills for money, not sales skills. I later list sales as a good skill.

 

[Kak]

How do you learn all of these things without first selling your skills?

An engineer, marketer or architect that wants to grow a large firm can't just start being a "real entrepreneur" and disconnect his time from money. He sells his skills and learns the things you mentioned along the way. And if he can't sell his skills then he can't learn these things.

You seem pretty sure of yourself. Glad you’re so confident.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

Op is going to school. This is a place where he can pick up leadership skills by being leaders in club and societies.

I remembered in MJ’s profile he was the chairman/president of college entrepreneurship clubs.

Good leadership is like a rising through the rank to be mafia boss, you need find 1) a hustle that can help your men feed their families, 2)be first to taste the bad $hit and the last to reap any reward.

In organization such as schools and army you don’t have to worry about (1) too much.

Leadership is more like a character that is lacking today in many organizations filled with professional managers rather than real leaders.

Professional managers don’t have any long term stake in the community. Do some short term stunts, pump up the stats, seek for a pay rise and jump 4-5 years later. I see this as too prevalent today in business and politics that is causing civilizational decay.

If I want to learn leadership I will intern in multi-generational family owned businesses that have a bunch of staffs who worked for them more than 15-20 years.

On sales, I agree that the best way to learn selling is to sell something.

This means that you need to get involved in a business where the sales is just one part of the process.

Well, I can only talk about my experience. I was in all the “leadership” positions you can imagine, at the highest levels in school. Student council president, class rep in university, ran the school store, etc.

I wouldn’t say I learned any skills. I came with all my skills ready-made. For example, school store. It was so easy. Immediately when I took over I said “make the salty snacks cheap AF, and the drinks expensive AF” — sales took off. Then I cracked down by working with the administration on students selling shit. Complete monopoly. Then you reward your boys, put them in positions of power, and so on.

Like wtf?! That’s the easy part. As I’ve always said, give me access to the buttons and to power and I will easily dominate. Just a small entry, that’s all that’s needed.

Still, none of this stuff helped in business. Power and influence don’t just fall into your hands, do they? So called “leadership” is formed from skills that allow you to wield power effectively and extend it.

Many politicians for example have MUCH worse leadership skills than I do. Yet they hold all the buttons and I don’t hold any. Why?! Clearly not because of their leadership skills.

That’s only relevant later. Like that skill is relevant now wnd you find yourself at the helm of a team. But not when you’re a brokie with nothing, starting a business. Then that “leadership” BS is useless.

This is actually why I love MJ’s TMF — it explains exactly what you need in those early phases. Identifying and solving problems, and going after the right opportunities. That imo is key — and no amount of leadership helps until you do that.

In order to wield influence and be a leader you need power. Ain’t nobody gonna give power to a brokie.

 

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[EliaR]

You are probably facing limiting beliefs when you say that you "need X to do Y".

It feels like that, that you must become an engineer to own an engineering company. Or that you must become a programmer to create the next tech breakthrough on the "internet".

It's the same limited thinking that most people get stuck with when it comes to money and wealth.

We often think and give advice to others "make the money, then you can start a business".

Questions I have to counter that are simple:

1. Why does it have to be your money?
2. Why does it have to be your technical skill?

What if you started thinking "Who, not How?"

I promise you this, you will get the experience you need right after you needed it.

I'm not sure where you're coming from.
Why do you think I have this limiting belief? I don't

 

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[Black_Dragon43]

You’re almost as bad as cupcake.

You know as well as I do, in entrepreneurship the answer to every “how do I do that” question is to just figure it out.

That is literally what separates the genius of an entrepreneur from the stagnant obedience of a lifelong employee.

Lean into that difference. That’s the difference that pays.

Figure it out, or suck.

Honestly? In a certain sense, finding my partners and employees was a matter of luck. I have no clue how it happened, hence I cannot replicate it.

Finding my fiancée was also a matter of luck. I cannot replicate it. (I'm not talking here about the development of the relationship, but the start of it – that's what I can't replicate).

Neither of those responses are helpful though for someone looking for a fiancée or partners/employees.

Let me put the question differently. If somehow all your skills, money and connections were taken away from you, what would you do?

You'd have to do something right?

So what would that be?

Would you make a list of the biggest companies in your city and seek for a job?
Would you open Upwork and apply for a freelancing job?
Would you find a conference about something that interests you and attend?
Would you attend events at the Chamber of Commerce?
Would you read the newspaper looking for opportunities?

What would you do to "figure it out" as you put it?

And I'll be the first to admit that if all my money, know-how and connections were taken away, I'd start freelancing and cry every night, because I know how F*cking hard it is to build from scratch since I haven't figured out the formula for success yet As I always say, success is easy... once you've got your start. Getting your start, though, that's a F*cking bitch.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

@Mtaz,



The ability to design rational thought experiments.
• That's the most useful skill that I learned throughout the years for future-proofing anything.

I continue to get great value in using that to iteratively deconstruct, customize, test, tweak, scale, and morph any concept.
• In any field. For any task. In any conditional situation.

** For that skill to be useful, I continue to invest the rarest, most valuable commodity of all = Time.

I mean, think about it.
• Just by looking at an arbitrary model, you'll be able to understand how it works.
** And customize it to best suit a different use case. In a different field. To hit different targets.

That's any model. For example:
• Any business model. Any sales strategy. Any marketing technique. Any conversion tactic.

And there's no better way to learn that skill than to practice. Here's what I do:
• Imagine a goal. Imagine solutions to achieve that goal. Imagine ways to tailor-fit 'em for a particular starting point.
** Think of problems to solve along the way. Think of strategies to avoid or reduce negative impact.
** Visualize the deployment of scaling methods. Visualize the execution of expansion plans.
• And iteratively run it all in your mind. While creatively changing fields, goals, and use cases.

Best of luck!

This is brilliant advice!

Some of the best I’ve read on the forum.

 

[EliaR]

Sales and marketing

 

[C.Craigie]

learn that reading is absolutely crucial to success, you read to earn a degree and pay thousands for the pleasure, so you don't need college. Try and set aside time to read books of value and in what you want become knowledgeable on, your product or business will only be as good or strong as your own knowledge. Do this at 17 and your already ahead of the curve, good luck!

 

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[MakeItHappen]

that's too hard, i rather read 100m offers all day and spend the rest of my time feel euphoric about how i'll "eventually" use the information

Don't forget 100m leads

 

[Black_Dragon43]

The best skills that support the goal of scale (actual entrepreneurship) are communication, operations, leadership, sales, and capitalization

Apart from sales, these are all very vague.

Like let’s say I want to practice communication. How do I do that?

Or I want to practice leadership. How?

Imo these are not really skills.

Skills could be having vision — knowing what to do, what opportunities to go for.

Or emotional control — being able to keep your cool and think rationally in messy situation (which a good leader does).

But “leadership” by itself isn’t a skill. And definitely cannot be “practiced”. It’s an amalgam formed from an amorphous compound of different skills.

Same for operations. How do I practice operations?! LOL

Coordination, (which is part of operations), likewise isn’t a skill. You need to look for those skills which actually make “coordination” possible. Like listening to the other party and so on.

Sales is the closest from the bunch to a real skill, because we can define it as motivating someone to give you money in exchange for X.

But even then, it’s messy AF. Like, what if I want to sell you a piece of dirt from the ground. Am I a “bad” salesperson if I fail? Am I failing because I haven’t yet figured out good “sales skills”?

All this stuff trips people up. Certainly tripped me up for a long time. It causes you to misunderstand what really leads to success.

Great sales “skills” don’t lead to success if your product is shitty. If you’re not solving problems. And so on.

As a beginner, if I read “sales is da skill to learn” my next thought is “F*ck everything else, let me just sell anything and crush it with this skill”.

And of course, it doesn’t work like that.

Same with something like “marketing”. I love “learn marketing”. Ok bro, like how?!

 

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[EliaR]

Selling your skills for money is not scalable. It’s limited by time.

Real entrepreneurship demands scale where your time is not related directly to your income.

The best skills that support the goal of scale (actual entrepreneurship) are communication, operations, leadership, sales, and capitalization.

How do you learn all of these things without first selling your skills?

An engineer, marketer or architect that wants to grow a large firm can't just start being a "real entrepreneur" and disconnect his time from money. He sells his skills and learns the things you mentioned along the way. And if he can't sell his skills then he can't learn these things.

 

[Andy Black]

Hello, I am 17 years old and I want to start a business in the next 3-4 years. Since I currently dont have the capital and I go to college, I cannot start a business. Therefore, I want to learn a skill or two that will help me in the future. I would really be delighted if you can suggest some skills to learn that will help me in the future. I thought of learning coding but unfortunately I dont have a good device that supports the coding apps and etc. So please suggest me some skills to learn!

What's your background? What can you help people with *now* that they'd pay you for? What would you like to be able to help people with?

There's a great podcast I'll link to below where they discuss "Learn a skill, sell the skill, scale the skill". I'd say the way to learn a skill is to do it for people, free or low paid, and that you could "Sell the skill, learn the skill, scale the skill".

No matter. Just don't make it your goal to "learn" in the sense of hitting books and taking courses.

Here's a video that might help you:

MINDSET - Start Faster. Stop "Learning".

If you're just getting started, haven't made a sale, or feel you're spinning your wheels then this 8 minute video should help. It's pulled out of a longer call (also linked below). Curious what your main takeaways are, and what you'll do different going forward. View...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

And here's that podcast:

TMBA 227: The Rise Of Productized Services | Tropical MBA

Damian Thompson from Linchpin is back on the show this week talking with me about one of the biggest movements we see in the location independent scene. We talk about what Damian has learned during his first 1,000 days of being a business owner, and how listeners can utilize the lessons he’s learned

tropicalmba.com