Just go to LinkedIn to see how common the word “expert” is. I am sure many of those people border on mediocre in their profession, but the truth is that being an expert at something is the best way to advance in your career, your business and your earnings.
The good news is that it is never too late to turn your career around and become an expert in a field, whether that means developing your current career or starting out in a completely new one, especially now that “reinventing yourself” is so fashionable.
Here are some tips and steps that will help you reach expert level at something.
1. Decide what you want to be an expert in
Obviously, the first step is knowing what we want to become experts in, ideally something that earns us money. But be careful. You are probably already an expert at something, or close to it, depending on what you do now. If that is where you want to aim, it will be much easier, because you only need to pick up a bit of extra knowledge to reach the next level.
If, on the other hand, you want to move into a new field and become an expert in it, the road is not so easy, but it is still within your reach, whether you are 20 or 50.
This may sound repetitive, but if you want to become an expert in a field you are passionate about, it will be much easier. If you only want to learn because you have heard there is money in that industry but it does not particularly appeal to you, the hours of learning will probably weigh on you.
See also: Stuck and not sure what to do next? This story is for you
2. Focus all your attention on a single subject
Peter Economy, the author of more than 75 books on business management, says the problem with many people is that their minds are disorganised and they do not follow a specific strategy. If you try to learn many things at once, you will learn a little of everything and become an expert in nothing.
(Read: 5 strategies for learning faster)
You need to focus all your attention on one subject. If you want to become a web designer, learn to design websites, and once you have mastered that you can move on to learning search engine optimisation or other strategies. As you keep doing and learning, though, you will become an expert before you consider yourself one.
3. Learn from other experts
There is no better way to become an expert than to learn from experts. If you learn from mediocre people, you will stay in the realm of mediocrity. There are no shortcuts for most things in life, such as building a profitable company or building wealth. When it comes to becoming an expert, however, there are plenty of shortcuts, and one of them is surrounding yourself with people who already are what we want to be.
4. Question the experts
By the same token, you need to learn to question the experts, above all because when you question the experts in an industry, you may find there were not so many experts after all, just people who had settled into certain beliefs and limitations.
There is no greater expert than the pioneer who finds a different solution from the rest of the “experts”.
5. Practice will make you an expert
There are no shortcuts here. Experts are made by growing a thick skin and running into every kind of situation and problem.
If you want to be a sales expert, for example, not even 20,000 hours of theory can replace what you learn by visiting more than 1,000 customers. A sales professional becomes an expert through trial and error.
Malcolm Gladwell said that to become an expert you need at least 10,000 hours of practice in a field, although a very sensible study showed that in many professions you don’t need those 10,000 hours to become better at your job than someone else.
Still, you will need hours of practice in anything you set out to learn. As Warren Buffett is credited with saying, a single day running a company will give you more experience than 100 years at university.
6. And you will have to work at learning
To become an expert, you will have to act like the experts. You will need to spend a lot of time reading, probably take courses and attend seminars. The best advice, without doubt, is to listen to people with a different or innovative view, without losing sight of the more traditional one. It all counts towards learning.
But your greatest advantage will be if you are genuinely becoming an expert in something you enjoy, which makes the learning process fun, exciting and rewarding. If that is not your case, go back to the first point and ask yourself whether becoming an expert in that field is really worth it to you.
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