for me, it’s copywriting. picked it up just to run ads for a dropshipping thing at tetr college. didn’t expect much. now i end up using it everywhere, emails, pitches, even random texts where i need to convince someone. what’s a skill you learned for one reason but now use way more than you expected?
what skill made the biggest difference in your career so far?
byu/Sea-Plum-134 inEntrepreneur
Posted by Sea-Plum-134
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for me it was learning how to ask better questions. i picked it up trying to do customer interviews and it ended up changing how i handle sales calls, feedback, and even internal planning. once you stop pitching and start digging, people give you way more useful info. it also saves a ton of time because you get to the real problem faster. feels simple, but it compounds hard over time.
Not a single skill in particular, but I tried everything and taught myself every facet of the sales lifecycle. I wasn’t particularly amazing at most of it, but the most important skill I learned was knowing how long something should take and how much it should therefore cost. Honestly, I consider it the single most important ingredient.
Concise communication and letting silence linger.
Relationship building is everything. I credit over 90% of my revenue to direct relationships I have made, built and fostered over the years.
Networking, attending events, serving others first is so vital to success.
I got a neck tattoo. That’s pretty much all I got, but somehow it worked?
Being emphatic and having good negotiation skills.
Honestly for me it was just learning to pause before reacting
I didn’t think of it as a skill at the time. I just kept making rushed decisions early on and paying for them later.
Once I slowed down and started questioning why I was doing things, a lot changed.
Not flashy, but it made a real difference.
Stepping away from perfection.
Doesn’t sound like a skill, but coming from a former perfectionist, it’s really something you need to learn.
It’s one of those things you can only learn from being in the startup trenches.
You need speed in early days, a basic core-product that works, you don’t need everything to be perfect.
I would even go as far as saying that perfection kills early-day growth.
content creation, it affects all my job (in a good way). even brought me to selling digital products and receiving bookings
Clarity
Copywriting for me too. It translates to all aspects of work: communication in chats, reports to clients, team leadership, content, websites, app copy etc. Copywriting also helps to get maximum from AI by writing clear prompts. Copywriting basically teaches how to think clearly.
Other skill that I’m actively practicing is “beginning from the end”, meaning not jumping into work right away, but rather thinking about the best possible outcome that I can create and only then pushing hard to get to the first version as soon as possible. There’s a book from Amazon “working backwards” explaining this concept: Amazon writes press releases before they even start developing their products.
Basic financial literacy changed everything. I learned it just to stop bleeding cash, now I use it in pricing, negotiations, planning hires, even deciding what not to build. Once you see numbers clearly, a lot of stress just evaporates.
Learn when to talk and when to not. And when you talk, asking the right questions based on the context and who your speaking with.
Sales experience in a few different industries. So, all I need to do is learn the product. Been my saving grace.
Thinking from prospects pov
Being genuine. If you’re in sales then this works like a silver bullet. Once people understand that youre honest and always put a customer’s interest before yours …. you’re half way through landing a customer … a loyal one at that. In my 20+ years of experience and expertise in sales this has been my brand.
Confidence
Mine would definitely be curiosity, and the desire to communicate. I feel like both were crucial for my career growth. Some people are afraid of asking questions, or don’t know what to ask, which are things I learned to do quite quickly.
Learning effective prompt engineering for using ai efficiently
I was basically a writer trying to earn a living by writing and publishing online. However, when I started creating websites, running websites and even managing websites for clients, it made a big career difference
I know I should just ask chat but copy right literally just means writing your own content? I started to write my on LinkedIn content & it’s been a game changer. Now I’m looking for a tool to generate posts for X out of the same bank of words. Any good tools op?
For me it was learning how to think in systems instead of tasks. I originally picked it up to manage projects and avoid chaos, but it ended up changing how I approach almost everything.
Once you start seeing work as inputs, constraints, and outputs, decisions get easier. You stop reacting and start designing. It shows up in hiring, pricing, delegation, even personal habits. Less effort spent “doing,” more effort spent setting things up so the right outcome happens by default.
It’s not a flashy skill, but it compounds quietly and touches everything, which is why it ended up being the most valuable for me.
When working in a team, I don’t just focus on my own tasks – I stay aware of what others are doing and what problems come up to others. This keeps me connected with the team and ensures my input actually matters.
The skill that has lowkey helped me tremendously is basic writing skills. I am not a wordsmith but i learned that simply being able to write at the level of a first year college student puts you ahead of most people, You come across as more polished, intelligent, and educated.