I have been noticing posts on my social media showing disdain towards course sellers and wanted to give my opinion on the topic.
First things first: We all have a finite time in the world. Money, once lost, could be regained, but time if lost, can never be recovered.
Learning from free resources is not bad, but the common perception is that most free resources have very basic info, are outdated, and are not structured. You will have to shuffle through many resources to get a big-picture idea and the knowledge you seek, which all require time, and time is a precious commodity.
You can spend time finding the perfect resources and hopefully get lucky in your journey. Or you can pay someone who has already researched everything for you and put everything in a structured way in a course so that you can learn everything from Basic to Advance, and most importantly, save time! They have done the work for you and spent time, so you don’t have to.
I agree that not every paid course is a good course. That’s when you can look at the reviews and comments to gauge the quality of the course.
In the end, no matter which direction, free or paid, you go, you will still have to do the hard work and take action after getting the knowledge. So why not save time, take the paid course, and get up to speed quickly?
I have bought a lot of courses, and I learned at least one new thing from each of them or learned to do something differently and effectively than what I already know, so I don’t think paying for courses has been a waste of money for me.
A recent example is my novella on Amazon. It has 211 reviews with a 4.3 / 5 rating. If I hadn’t taken a paid course, I wouldn’t have found the framework writers used to write novels and screenplays for the movies, and my book would have been a flop, which would have probably discouraged me from pursuing the career further. I could have learned everything from free resources too, but the paid course had everything structured, and it took me a week to develop the plot for my novella, which wouldn’t have been possible with the free resources, as that would have taken me a lot of time.
Conclusion:
Save your time and invest in a good course if you are serious about learning a new skill. It’s cheaper than what you have already paid for your degree. Change your mindset. Think that you are investing in yourself and not paying for the course.
