This is really good advice for any art/trade/craft. Study the Thing. Do the Thing. Make friends in and out of the Thing. Experience and hands' on can be the best teachers. And friends help us cope with the Thing.

Exactly!

An exciting thing here is so much of this is a purely mental blocker. Its a form of learned helplessness in how we see ourselves in our society, we even hear "you can be anything!" but its hard to really believe those words. But, its kinda true, if you work hard enough.