Missing pieces

Here we are again with another installment in the series about why people would pay for something that they can get for free!  I hope you have been enjoying the series so far.  When I saw the post on Marie’s blog, it struck a chord with me, and I just felt that I needed to write about it, and expand on Marie’s fine points.

Although this is not a point that I had considered before seeing Marie’s video, I found this to be a well thought out and an excellent point from Marie.

Basically, think of it like this.  If you are in need of information on a certain topic, and you are searching the Internet for such information, that pretty much means that you are not an expert, right?  I mean, if you were an expert, you would not need to be searching for the information because either you already know it, or you may want to refresh your mind and have the information at your fingertips for review.

If you are not an expert, in fact, you are likely a newbie who knows little on the topic, then how do you really know what information to search for?  Truth is, you know in a broad sense what to search for, but it is also likely that you don’t know the fine points, the small things that you need to learn on the topic.  Since you don’t know those small bits, then you don’t even know to search for them!  If you don’t search for those smaller things, then the picture that you come up with from your free research will be incomplete.

On the other hand, if you pay an expert to teach you the information that you need, it is his responsibility to include everything you need to know on the topic.  He knows all of the nuances and fine points that you don’t even know that you need to look into.

I can certainly attest to this, and I can see it from both ends of the spectrum.

As a learner

Over the years, I have purchased courses, books and other sources of information on a topic that I wanted to learn about.  I have been surprised, or caught off guard many times when certain information was included in the course, something that I had never even considered.  Often, it was something revolutionary that I would have never learned if I had tried to do the learning only on my own.

As a teacher

Over the years, I have taught on a number of different topics.  I have written books on many different topics.  I have taught online courses on my own websites.  I am also currently teaching one of the leading online learning websites, Udemy.  In all of the different courses and different topics that I have taught, I have constantly had people come to me after a lesson or after the course and say that they were surprised by this or that, and never heard about the fact before. That is certainly proof that if you don’t know the topic, how could you expect to know what to look for in order to do your own free learning?

I think it is important to consider this…. learning does not cost you money… it makes you money or at least saves you money.  A good course from somebody who knows what he is teaching will save you time, money, and possibly make you money (depending on the topic).  So, turn your thinking around and realize that spending money is only temporary, and it will come back to you!