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We live in the era of the “knowledge economy”, so if you want to charge a lot for your time, you really need to know a large variety of things. Networking, managing employees, marketing – all of these things become a lot easier if you have a reputation as an expert in your field.

There are a great deal of articles written on this subject, but all of their content combined can be brought down to just three points:

1) Try to learn as much as you can about your field;

2) Try to understand what you have learned;

3) Then relate it to as many people as possible.

Most of the articles are devoted to the last instruction. But for some reason, people tend to ignore the first and second steps. Apparently, everyone thinks this is all very simple – well, it is not. The result is a huge number of people who call themselves experts, but just endlessly repeat the same thoughts and news as each other. In order to stand out from the crowd, you need to become a genuine expert, not just claim you are one.

Below, I will discuss some tips as well as my own observations about how best to study a particular topic. I have never formally learned marketing or business, but I have successfully founded a number of small companies and now advise on projects in low-budget marketing.

First, let us see the two kinds of expert:

1) The Wikipedia-man. If you want to know something, ask a Wikipedia-man. When you bring up recent news with this person, they will respond, “Yes, I heard about that.” They are among the first to receive their news and, therefore, everyone need them as a source of the latest information. To become a Wikipedia-man takes a lot of effort because it requires constantly maintaining an information network so you can keep yourself in the know.

2) The Deep Understanding person. When you tell this person any news, they will answer: “Oh really, that happened? Well, I’m not surprised – it was predictable, because….” Then, they will give a detailed explanation of the reasons why it happened. Sooner or later, almost every “Wikipedia-man” becomes a “Deep Understanding person” – once they have a quality amount of knowledge. Most of the tips in this article are devoted to walking the path from “Wikipedia-person” to “Deep Understanding person”.

Tips

I’m not going to talk about the obvious, such as “Subscribe to the most popular blogs in your industry.” You can work these out for yourself. Rather, I’ll be telling you how you can avoid the most common mistakes that hinder people:

1) Focus on tasks.

Always ask yourself the question: “What will I be able to do after I look into this? ‘. If knowledge does not bring any benefits to your work, then what is the point? In order to avoid uselessly processing huge piles of information, separate large topics into smaller sub-topics.

For example, marketing in social media. There are a lot of objectives in this category: monitoring and working with negativity, promoting content, promoting a personal brand, working with opinion leaders, etc. No one can do all of these equally well. Therefore, focus.

2) Find the primary sources.

As we have said, there are very few people who make the news, compared to those who simply retell it. In addition, a retelling always loses some of the meaning. So always try to get to the sources of the trend.

3) Read and take part in the discussions.

No book or article on any subject covers all nuances. Besides, in practice, things do not always go according to theory. If you read discussions among professionals, you can learn the most important details, which you will not find elsewhere.

4) Select your own learning speed.

There is a very common error, which happens when a person begins studying a subject using a system that was created by someone else. For example, to study programming, you have to start by reading a big, thick book. The book might be very useful, but suppose the order and pace of the topics is not very suitable for a particular student. Still, he obstinately reads the book, page by page. In the end, he decides that programming is extremely boring and quits his training. If he had studied the topics in the order that was suitable for him personally, this problem would most likely have been avoided.

5) Do not let yourself get bored

As soon as you get bored, you stop taking in most of what you read. Your brain does not want to remember it and you cannot make it, unless you are a master of mind control. So do not be afraid to hop from one topic to another, depending on your own emerging interest. Obviously, this advice does not hold if you have an exam on a certain topic tomorrow.

Using these simple rules, you can learn anything more effectively, from financial management to cooking. But in order to become a true expert, you need to know the rules underlying the topic you are studying. This can be achieved by using three practices:

1) Act.

Practice is always different from theory. Through taking action, you see questions and insights emerge, which would never have appeared in the course of passive learning.

2) Explore.

Try to invent your own rules, hypotheses and theories, and test them. Conducting research will help you discover for yourself the things that seasoned experts do not like to share.

3) Discuss

The ancient Greeks said: “Truth is born in an argument.” For the majority of people, debate is the most productive way of thinking. Exchanging views and new ideas with others will allow you to learn things which you would never have discovered by yourself.

This is all the advice I would give. The most important tips are to have a more specific focus and to perform real tasks. Even the most knowledgeable expert is difficult to trust if they cannot demonstrate any practical knowledge.

Good luck to you in learning more!

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