Marketing lessons from learning Spanish
Today marks my 84th day streak on Duolingo, learning Spanish. Being of Filipino descent, I breezed through levels 1 and 2 since many Tagalog words are derived from their Spanish counterparts.
I aced section after section, even perfecting a few. But now, here I am in the middle of level 3, and things just got real. Suddenly, it's throwing all kinds of new words at me—words that are no longer basic or similar to their Tagalog versions.
Just when I was feeling confident practicing my Spanish when ordering at Mexican restaurants, greeting people with "Buenas tardes!" and "Buenas noches!", or trying to speak to my husband in Spanish, I was slapped with the reality that I've barely scratched the surface.
And this is good.
This is necessary.
Struggle is an unavoidable step to getting good at anything. Anything. Practice really does make perfect, or at least something close to it. But sometimes, even when we know this, it doesn't make the challenges any easier. It doesn't make the temptation to give up go away.
You have to remind yourself that there is light on the other side. Convince yourself that the struggle isn't permanent. It’s an essential part of the process. And, always—always—there’s a point just beyond the struggle where you'll experience a breakthrough.
No one who kept practicing, despite looking (or in my case, sounding) like an idiot, didn’t eventually improve.
No one who kept studying a subject failed to become proficient at it.
No one who kept chipping away at a rock ever ended up without a masterpiece.
This hair-pulling phase is part of the whole picture. It’s the unavoidable stage of building your foundation. It is essential for success. It's the bridge that takes you there.
So, whatever it is you’re trying to master, do it with joy and diligence. Soak up everything you can possibly learn, knowing that mastery is just around the corner.
In marketing, constant learning is part of the game. You learn from each campaign’s analytics, you adapt to new algorithms, you discover new ways to resonate with your audience, and you learn to navigate new digital tools and social media platforms.
Things are constantly changing. There’s always something new on the horizon. And you have to make a choice: either complain and feel overwhelmed by it or embrace the challenge and play the game.
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