How I Lost—and Reignited—My Passion for Learning

For most of my life, learning has been an obsession. Not just a hobby, but an all-consuming drive. When I was 13, I fell in love with the stock market. I looked at hundreds of charts a day, absorbed every bit of content I could find, and spent over a decade learning everything about trading. That passion took me from being an individual trader to a professional in the space, shaping my first career at TradeStation, where I built tools for active traders.

But at some point, I stopped learning.

Over the past year, I found myself unmotivated to dive into new topics like I once did. I wasn't waking up eager to absorb new information. The hunger for knowledge that had once defined me felt… dulled. At first, I couldn't figure out why. Maybe it was burnout. Maybe I had already learned so much that nothing felt new. Maybe it was just life getting in the way.

I reflected on this a lot, looking back at my younger self—the kid who was endlessly curious, who learned voraciously because he wanted to, not because he had to. And then I realized what had changed.

Learning Without an Immediate Feedback Loop

When I was deep into trading, the results of my learning were immediate. If I studied a strategy, analyzed charts, and made an informed trade, I could see the impact of that learning in real time. If I was right, I made money. If I was wrong, I adjusted and improved. The connection between knowledge and tangible results was clear, and that fueled my motivation.

But in the past year, I had been consuming information passively. I was reading, listening, and absorbing—but not doing. And without an immediate feedback loop, learning started to feel empty.

Reigniting the Passion Through Building

A few months ago, something shifted. I started building my own website from scratch—actually getting my hands dirty with design, engineering, search engine optimization, marketing, and lead generation.

This was different from just reading about how to do these things. I was learning while doing, and crucially, I could see the impact of what I was learning in real time. The more I refined my site, the better it looked. The more I optimized it, the more visitors it attracted. The more I experimented with different marketing techniques, the more engagement I saw.

That feedback loop—the same one I had in trading—was back.

The Lesson: Learning Needs Action

I realized that my passion for learning had never disappeared. It had just needed the right conditions to thrive. For me, that means learning through doing, where I can directly see the impact of my efforts. I need to apply knowledge in a way that produces real, tangible results—whether it's trading, building a product, or growing a business.

Now, I'm embracing learning again. Not just as something to consume, but as something to use. And if you ever find yourself in a rut, feeling like you've lost your curiosity or drive, ask yourself:

• Am I just absorbing information, or am I applying it?
• Do I have a feedback loop that shows me the results of what I'm learning?
• How can I turn passive learning into active creation?

For me, the answer was simple: Learn by building. Learn by doing. Learn by making things happen.

And now? I'm more excited to learn than I've been in years.