You can either grind for gold… or you can grind for experience points, and most people pick the wrong currency.

When I was younger, I spent an embarrassing number of hours playing the original Diablo (yes, I am old). 

Not in a “this is productive” way, but in a “how is it suddenly 2 a.m.” way. If you have ever played, you know the temptation. You can farm gold. You can flip items on the auction house. 

You can optimize routes so that your character looks wealthy long before they are powerful.

And for a while, it feels good.

But eventually, you hit a wall. A dungeon you cannot enter. A raid group that will not invite you. 

A boss that deletes you in two hits while you wonder if your armor is decorative.

The problem is simple. You optimized for money, not experience points.

This is exactly how most people approach their careers and businesses, especially when they are thinking about starting an online school.

They ask, “How do I make the most money as fast as possible?” instead of asking, “What gives me the most experience points right now?”

In games, this mistake is annoying. In real life, it is expensive.

Early in any journey, experience points matter more than gold. They unlock new abilities. They open up new zones. They let you play the game at a higher level. Gold just makes the early levels more comfortable.

Yet most adults are trained to do the opposite. We are taught to protect our income at all costs. 

Do not risk it. Do not experiment. Do not take a step that might look inefficient on a spreadsheet.

So we end up like a level 1 character with epic gear, standing in a starter zone, afraid to leave because they have no idea how to use the gear.

When people come to me wanting to start an online school, this pattern shows up immediately. 

They want the perfect curriculum before teaching a single student. They want the perfect tech stack before hosting their first call. They want to know the revenue model before they know how students actually behave.

What they are really saying is, “I want gold before I earn experience points.”

That is not how the game works.

If you want to build an online school or any online business that lasts, stop asking how to make the most money this month. Start asking where the experience points are. Teach before you automate. Connect before you scale. 

Gold will come.

Experience points are what actually let you play the game.