There’s no magic to this developer/freelancer/make my living writing code thing. Persistence. Hard work. Enthusiasm. All boring, “yeah, yeah I already know that” non-secrets to success.
Yet, the very things most of those who are still struggling lack.
And, those who make it… finally get right.
Take this email I just got from Ryan:
You might remember this story from a while back, I had been offered a promotion to a jr. dev role and by the end of the day I the offer was revoked. I had been working towards this goal for a couple years at this point so this was pretty devastating. All the time I spent taking college courses (part time) and online tutorials at home (all while working a full time job and full time dad) felt like it had been wasted. After consulting with a few colleagues and doing some deep digging, I had effectively harnessed this energy in a productive way that ultimately turned into me landing my dream job almost a year later.
If anyone says to themselves that they can’t do it, I’m here as an example of someone who was told that they can’t, and did it anyway. Am I an idiot? Do they see flaws in me that I don’t? Doesn’t matter because I’m here doing it and killing it and taking names. It’s not what you’re doing it’s how you’re doing it. It takes time and good people around you to help you keep your head straight and it’s up to you to stay on top of it.
You played a positive role in my journey so thank you dude. It was people like you that helped keep me motivated. Here’s your proof too, that what you’re doing for people is actually helping. I could go on but I have other stuff to do right now, take care.
No big secret there.
No “one big thing” that finally turned it.
Persistence.
Constantly learning and working.
Not giving a flying fooboo what others think.
There’s your secret. Of course, there is something to be said for efficiency and not wasting a bunch of time. One of the big issues I see with new developers is trying to move too fast.
Trying to learn everything in 30 days.
I even saw a video the other day that said, “Learn PHP in 30 minutes”.
Gimme a damn break!
What ends up happening is you only learn the fundamental stuff half-way and it eventually catches up to you. And, you wind up having to go back and re-learn it… and really get it.
And, it costs you a bunch of time.
And, a bunch of hand-wringing.
When I was in the Army, we had a saying when it came to training: “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” The idea was to practice slow, be intentional and focus on getting it right.
Then, as you practiced, muscle memory would kick in…
And, eventually, you’d be going fast without knowing it.
And, your movements would still be precise.
Said another way… practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. So, how do you learn to code as fast as possible? By slowing down and not worrying about how fast you’re going.
This is all why I spend so much time teaching the “why” in my PHP course. A lot of classes out there just show you what to type. Which seems fun at the time, but when it’s time to code on your own… it leaves you feeling empty.
Not sure what to do.
And, staring blankly at your empty code editor.
Because, you never got the reason behind why you typed what you did. And, that causes you to go back, again and again, to glean the meaning for yourself instead of being taught that meaning… like you should have been.
Anyway, that’s probably why the people who really want to learn PHP at a deep level tend to love my course and tend to have success afterwards… similar to what Ryan did.
It’s not just regurgitating code.
It’s learning the “art” of how to code.
In any case, if you’re interested, the course is up on Udemy. If you really want to learn PHP, and coding principles in general, at a deep level the link to enroll is here: https://johnmorrisonline.com/phponudemy
Later,
John
Or, if you prefer Skillshare, you can get all my courses for free over on Skillshare. This page has all the details on how: https://johnmorrisonline.com/skillshare
