Why It’s Not Easy To Learn From "The Pros"

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to learn from the "pro’s?"

It’s a weird thing…  These people are best in class.  The top of the top. 

True professionals.

They’re willing to teach something, and we want to learn it, so we try.  We try hard, but it never seems to work out.

Why is that?

There’s a pretty good reason for it, and it’s something most people don’t even realize.

It’s that not all pro’s know how to teach.

You see it all the time in professional sports.  There’s always an absolutely great player that retires and becomes a coach.  But… the team isn’t any good.

It’s not that the players are bad, it’s that the coach is bad.

Think about that for a minute:  The same person can be an amazing player, but a horrible coach.

All because they can’t teach.

Let’s look at the reverse:  A great coach can be a mediocre player.

Don’t believe me?  Look at Vince Lombardi — The US football coach that was so good, they named the Super Bowl trophy after him. 

Do you want to know a dirty little secret?  He wasn’t a great player.

Not a true professional in the sport, but the best in history when it came to teaching average players how to do great work.

And Lombardi sure did it.  He had average players every season, and consistently won championships.

Those are the results you can expect with an amazing teacher.  You can get an average person to do great things, and a great person to be the best in the world.

This is how it was for me in Bonsai.

I knew everything by the book.  Seriously, everything.  But even though I knew it, I still struggled.

It was just hard to translate that professional level of info down to me, a beginner.

I hated all of the rules.  I just wanted to make some pretty little trees…

When it came to the important stuff like watering, or sunlight, it was hard to get direct answers.  I know there aren’t any, but you can make some broad assumptions and help a ton of people….

I had to learn from people just like me, but that were able to successfully keep trees alive and well.  They could communicate to me on a level that made sense.

Finally, something worked.

Now, I can actually keep trees alive.  More than that, I have a whole collection that is thriving.  It’s not just that I can keep a collection either.  I can make a tree whenever I want, letting me add to my collection whenever I see something worth trying myself.

When I tell this to people, they see me as some kind of bonsai whisperer.  Almost like I’m some ancient master that’s trained for half a lifetime…

Thankfully, it didn’t take a lifetime.  Just a few weeks and the right training from an average person that’s done it before.