I had a goal. Get a website created.

I am not a technical kind of gal. The only byte I know is from a juicy peach. I have to constantly have my hand held, on anything computer related. I admit that the concept of trying to get a web page put together is a trick. A friend tried to teach how to use Word Press and I just got confused. I would look at web sites and note what I liked or didn’t like. The thing was that my foundation of knowledge was based on other’s knowledge and not from any kind of experience.

To help remedy this situation I subscribe a member of various chat groups and associate with friends who have a strong foundation of computer knowledge or they have gained web design knowledge through job experience. Since I knew that I wanted to do a web site at some undefined future, I saved comments from others whenever they talked about web sites. They discussed the pros and cons of web sites. When I would listen to a technology related radio show I took notes on of things I learned. For example I didn’t know what a QR code was until within the last few months.

Want to know what a QR code is? It’s the black little box with a bunch of squiggly symbols inside it. QR codes are often printed at the bottom of magazine pages or bill boards. You put your iPhone up to scan it and the QR code might point you a web site or video. I stored that piece of information away and saved it for future use.

Finally I started getting quotes from web masters. We discussed who would do what and for what cost. I chose my web masters and then gave the list of items I had accumulated. So the good things of my web site are attributed to those who were willing to freely share their knowledge and to educated web masters. Any short comings are due to my inexperience. But this is one example where asking questions and just storing up data and observations has worked to my advantage.

I have a friend who is quite a do-it-yourselfer. She puts on her own roof, lays floors and installs shelves in her closet. She will watch home improvement TV shows and look up ‘how to’ info through various resources. She has tapped into the knowledge of professionals and gained information from the experience of others. She learned from them what type of things to avoid. I wager she makes a list and made a plan of attack. Then she just plunges in. Each task she does by herself gives her additional skills and experience that will make her more capable to the next project.

I’ve seen some wonderful examples of people who learn skills through their own initiative. My encouragement is for each of us to move forward in increasing our own learning through the knowledge of others. I have always liked the quote that tells the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is gained by experiencing things the hard way. Wisdom is learning things from the experience of others.

Have a project? Research it out, access the knowledge base of professionals and experienced people and you’re several steps closer to accomplishing a new goal.