Learn, then earn

Money drives most of things in this world. Everybody wants to start earning as soon as possible, without even being eligible. One must know when he has learn enough, and when his skills should reap the yield.

Everybody is eager to earn money, more and more money. But do we ever think if we deserve to earn yet, are we eligible for earning. I don’t think one should expect results without efforts. If they (results) come, be grateful to God. In college when companies came for campus placement I never thought myself eligible even once. Because I knew I have nothing to return, at least nothing productive and valuable. These companies are good at making you money making machine but what about you, are you satisfied with what they are doing to you? Like, they take precious time out of your life and put you to do something which, most of the times, you don’t enjoy and this is what happens most of the times.

I never knew I will be designing for the web one day. Never. While in school,  we are pushed to choose either medical science or engineering as a best trade, then commerce and arts for the rest. Arts for those who are not good at studies. Means this is all you have to choose from. I think myself as one of the luckiest person in India, because I am doing what I love to do — design (beautiful and easy to use) websites. I love HTML/CSS. I love typography, grids, beautiful designs (but usable).

I’ve been designing for almost 2 years now and worked with dozen of clients from around half-dozen countries. But I still feel I know nothing about good design, I have lots and lots to learn yet. When I look at work of great designers, I find myself nowhere. But you know, I’m satisfied with what I know and what I have. Because that gives me the power to learn more without being disappointed. Everybody can’t learn every detail of even a single particular subject. As the saying stays true, “The more I learn I come to know how less I know.”

I’m gifted with some really good things. One of those is my approach towards things. Every time I start to learn something new, I research about it online and try to get best possible resources. Same happened when I started web designing. I loved designing before I started it full-time. After college I started to think about designing websites. My friend told me about CSS, I looked around the web and tried to find some e-books, downloaded them, and studied these books for 6 months before thinking about designing for a client.

Now, being in Canada, I have had golden opportunity to buy books which I didn’t have while being in India. Though these books are costly for an average Indian like me but I love books and I’ve bought most of what I need. I’m thankful to God who has shown me the way. Remember, learn before you (expect to) earn.

11 Comments

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• 
  # Paulo Canabarro
  says on November 05

  Hey Amrinder,

  That’s a really good point, I think one of the main reasons designer have a problem with the price on the market because there are so many beginners that think they know something and charge extremely cheap prices.

  I thinks it all comes from that eager to make money fast instead of having the eager to learn faster and them be a complete professional.

• 
  # Adam Kornfield
  says on November 12

  Amrinder, I totally agree. Great viewpoint and post. Found you via bestwebgallery. I like your work, keep it up.

  Adam

• 
  # David
  says on November 13

  Thank for your post, brings up a lot of thougths I have made over the time and motivated me.

• 
  # mat
  says on November 13

  lol you think you know everything until you land on an amazing design and wonder who they did “that”

• 
  # Andy
  says on November 16

  very well said….thx for a wonderful post

• 
  # forex robot
  says on November 19

  nice post. thanks.

• 
  # Soumya
  says on November 28

  Amazing post! I totally agree with everything you have to say! Kept nodding my head through the entire post!

  Taking the time to learn something well with full focus really reflects in the quality of work done after that, which in turn automatically gets you noticed and money starts flowing in. Superb. 🙂

• 
  # Arunprasad
  says on November 28

  Yes, we have to learn first.

  That’s a wonderful post. I agree with your points, Amrinder. Also, I love your minimalistic web design and I enjoyed reading your blog.

• 
  # fx
  says on December 03

  Thank you very much for sharing. Your information always proves to be useful. I think your post is suitable for everyne, who is interested in valuable resources . I will keep following your posts.

• 
  # Murlu
  says on December 04

  This is why I love the web.

  I get to read how you’ve come to web design while learning about other cultures as well.

  Thank you for the book suggestions. I’ve read quite a few of those but the others look great as well.

• 
  # Calvin
  says on February 09

  Very nice Post