Learn By Doing
Learn By Doing
I’ve always wanted to learn Spanish. Took it in school - lots of it, in fact. Got the grades. As and Bs. But guess what? I never actually learned it.
Later, as an adult, I gave it another go. Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, all of it. Same result: no Spanish. If you’ve ever tried to learn something and felt like you were spinning your wheels, you know the feeling.
Then one summer, I tried something different. I used to live in New York City, but the winters were brutal, so I’d only return for a month or two in the summer. On one of those trips, I rented a room in Washington Heights, in a Dominican guy’s apartment. When I told him I wanted to learn Spanish, he took me seriously too seriously, maybe. From that moment on, he refused to let me speak English.
At first, it was awkward. Ok, it was really awkward. Imagine trying to discuss your day with only half the words you need. But he didn’t judge. He didn’t cut me any slack, either. Spanish or nothing.
We started with the basics, painfully slow. But before I knew it, we were actually having conversations. Dominican baseball. The best falafel spots in The Village. It wasn’t formal; it was life. Immersion. And for the first time, I actually learned Spanish.
Then, of course, I went back home to California, stopped speaking Spanish, and forgot it all.
But the experience taught me a lesson I’ve applied to everything since: you learn by doing.
This isn’t just about language. The same principle applies everywhere: business, coding, writing - anything worth mastering. You can sit in classrooms and listen to lectures about business all day, but if you’ve never had to convince someone to part with their money for something you’ve built, you haven’t really learned business.
It’s not like coaching basketball. Sure, an NBA coach doesn’t need to have been an NBA player. But every coach has played basketball. They’ve been on the court. Meanwhile, a shocking number of people in business have never earned a dollar outside of their paycheck.
And you can tell. Real recognize real.
The same is true in tech. You can tell the difference between someone who’s only ever coded for a job and someone who’s been responsible for an important codebase - especially when it’s their own money on the line.
It’s the difference between reading about driving and actually sitting behind the wheel. Or learning about agriculture versus planting something yourself.
Our culture has built a pipeline: college to employment to retirement. It’s tidy, safe, predictable - but it robs you of something fundamental.
You can take all the business, economics, and finance classes you want. It’s not the real thing. Starting a business, taking risks, failing and trying again - that’s where the learning happens.
And here’s the thing: even if you don’t succeed, you walk away with something invaluable - an appreciation for trying. That knowledge and experience will pay off later, trust me.
I think about this a lot when people talk about capitalism like it’s the enemy. They hate it, but they’ve never actually engaged with it. That’s like hating vegetables without ever trying them.
My challenge? Try it. Get a sales job. Start a business. Do some real marketing.
You might still hate capitalism afterward. And if you do, that’s fine - I respect it. But at least you’ll know what it really is.
Dark Money is for the people who get this. The ones who do. Not everyone will understand, and that’s ok. Most people prefer to learn in a classroom or an app, where failure doesn’t sting as much.
But the small minority who step into the arena? That’s my audience.
