Last month I received an email from a reader I didn’t really know how to respond to. It was about growing up in poverty and what he could do to lift himself out of a bad situation.

I think an important thing to remember is that every expert was once a beginner, every champion was once a rookie, and that with a few exceptions, most successful/wealthy individuals weren’t born that way.

They all took incremental actions over time to build their knowledge, skills, network — and eventually their net worth.

But I was curious what advice the Side Hustle Nation community had for this reader, and wow, did they come through big time.

A few years ago, I debated getting an MBA.

A lot of my friends were doing it, we have some world-class schools nearby (assuming they’d even let me in), and it seemed to be a solid investment in education.

For the most part, I’ve always been comfortable in school. I was a good student, and the structure of education made inherent sense: you show up, learn what you’re supposed to, and then pass a test.

As a kid, I wasn’t much into Star Trek, but I was fascinated by the idea of teleportation.

Beam me up!

It’s so elegantly efficient; I mean who wouldn’t want to skip all the transit time and instead just instantly arrive where you need to go?

I was all about the destination, and would have been happy skipping the journey entirely.

Are we there yet?

It’s taken me a long time to realize this, but there is no “there.”