These days, digital skills are the new, actual goldmine.
Even if you’re a professional leading an excellent career in the more traditional walks of life, having at least one soft skill will always come in handy. From web development, SEO, and graphic design to animation, video editing, and simply knowing how to use Microsoft Office properly, the opportunities are practically limitless. A lot of our daily lives and business needs are now intertwined with the internet, and although you could always pay people to handle these needs for you, a basic knowledge of these technologies always make the difference.
However, becoming an autodidact, especially in tech-related skills requires an insane level of determination, focus, and self-discipline. It’s a lot harder than participating in a paid program where you have no choice but to stay committed. According to American entrepreneur and SEO pioneer, Jason Hennessey, self-learning is a continuous journey and not a destination with some imaginary finish line.
Hennessey is the founder and CEO of Hennessey Digital, a versatile online digital marketing firm headquartered in California. His journey into Search Engine Optimization for improving website visibility started in 2001 after he had a website developed and it wasn’t ranking well on Google.
“At that time, there weren’t a lot of resources online that talked about SEO, and with the ones that did, you didn’t know who to trust,” Hennessey begins. “There was no college curriculum offering these types of courses because Google constantly changed the algorithm. By the time you would write a textbook and publish it, the algorithm would have been changed 15 more times and your work becomes obsolete.”
Through his research online, Hennessey found a resource called SEO Book by Aaron Wall. He paid $50 (at the time) to download the large book and it became his manual and go-to guide.
Today, one of his top pieces of advice to self-learners is to be mentally prepared for the occasional frustration.
Hennessey admits that initially, he was floating on the first few chapters about core coding, and nothing made sense to him. However, it didn’t stop him from reading the entire book with thousands of pages twice over and a bit more. Then he started implementing what he learned and the process became easier with time.
“With self-education, practice becomes invaluable to the learning process,” he said. “When you practice by implementation, you immediately see the effects of your critical thinking. I started practicing what I was learning on some of the sites I was building. I didn’t always know what I was doing. I’d break things on the sites but by referencing this book and sort of making it my bible, I learned from my mistakes and got better every day.”
Two decades later and now the owner of iloveseo.com, Hennessey is constantly being invited to speak at conferences and forums all over the world on Search Engine Optimization. It’s also one of the core services his agency provides to other brands, alongside web design, web development, organic social media growth, and conversion rate optimization.
Self-discipline and genuine interest
Despite the internet brimming with millions of free resources on nearly every digital skill you could think of, thousands of learners still prefer to join paid courses or take college programs to learn these skills. Everyone has access to free resources, but once you get started with learning on your own, you’d discover how difficult it is to stay committed and focused. Paying for a course boosts your chances of staying dedicated and following the curriculum.
Essentially, a lack of self-discipline makes the entire concept of self-education appear impossible. However, as Hennessey explains, self-discipline becomes a low-priority issue when a person is genuinely interested and highly motivated to learn something.
“For me, when I get into something, I’m like 150% interested in it,” he explains. “As I was practicing SEO and starting to see results, my curiosity continued to lead me down different paths. What started out as one book turned into an entire shelf. I moved on to reading resources online and then networking with people who were teaching solid tips on SEO. I built relationships with them, they gave me insight on the right tools, and I just kept going down a rabbit hole – the type that positively impacted my life.”
Self-learning requires you to map out a proper learning curve and make solid efforts to stick to it. You may not find all the information you need in one free resource or on a single website, but self-discipline involves knowing how not to be all over the place with no direction.
Also, following a path you’re genuinely interested in reduces the risks of dealing with self-doubt. Lots of autodidacts go through phases where they feel like they are not doing well enough and would never be as good as counterparts following paid/professional programs. However, Hennessey boils it all down to a matter of mindset and visible effort.
“Back then, I was spending most of my free time reading, learning, and practicing,” he said. “I was always up until about 4 am, tinkering with websites and reading. As a go-getter, I set myself up from the start to never feel like I was lazy or not doing enough.”
Finally, you must learn to trust the process and believe in your efforts. Unfounded comparison and second-guessing are highly counter-productive to your growth. You may have counterparts paying thousands of dollars to enroll in top-tier programs, but they are most likely not learning anything remarkably different. They may have better structure and coordination, but again, if you’re genuinely interested, your spark will guide the way.
“The importance of getting a proper education should never be underemphasized,” said Hennessey. “However, I think colleges are set up to teach you how to learn and not necessarily what you need to know. This is why a lot of people get out of college and have to take practical courses to be solid in tech-related fields. But if you’re genuinely interested in something, college will spark your interest to go research further.”
