When does a person becomes an expert?

I still remember my conversation with Aniruddha Patwardhan – Healthcare Brand Consulting Mumbai in 2015 at his office, Setu Creations, in Thane.

I was new to freelancing and had many apprehensions about different aspects of professional life. While discussing different things, this question came to my mind and I couldn’t hold my urge to ask him.

And, like always, he explained it to me in the simplest way possible.

An expert knows what are the possible solutions, but the person is also capable of telling and educating you on what you should do in your particular case, and this wisdom comes with experience.

He also explained to me the difference between ‘Training’ and ‘Learning’.

That explanation shaped my approach towards my professional life.

Whatever I learn, whether it is small or big, I make sure that I learn it inside out. Yet, there is a possibility that I might miss certain aspects of it, but this puts me in a better position to judge whether a particular approach will help me solve my issue or not.

Unfortunately, I meet many tech and marketing people these days who call themselves experts, but many of them are not able to give me the guidance I need. In that case, it makes me question their expertise.

There is a possibility that the expert may not be able to solve certain things, but in that case, the same expert should have a network of people who can help him/her solve that issue.

E.g. If suppose I hire an expert AWS service provider, and if that service provider is not able to solve a particular issue that we are facing, the expert should reach out to relevant people in his/her network for possible solutions, judge whether those solutions will really work for us and accordingly provide us with the solution.

Getting deeper insights into the things that I do, and having a network of people who are more experienced than me and can guide me whenever I am stuck at anything, has helped me a lot in my career.

Building expertise and building a network of experts is a time-consuming task. And, it requires a lot of patience, but having these 2 things with you will never throw you out off the market.