Are you in the 60%?

Let’s face it.

According to statistics, 60% of people who start learning programming end up quitting.

I am the author of quite a few Python courses and I communicate with students every day, and I know the exact reason why that happens. So, let me tell you the reason and more importantly let me tell you how you can avoid falling in the same trap.

Have a brief look at this tiny Python program:

vocabulary={"weather":"clima","earth":"terra","rain":"chuva"}
def translate_to_portuguese(word):
    return vocabulary[word]
word = input("Enter an English word: ")
print(translate_to_portuguese(word))

If you know Python already, you can easily tell what the above script does. The script prompts the user to enter an English word and returns the Portuguese translation for that word. For simplicity, I included only three words: weather, earth, and rain: however, you can insert an entire English-to-Portuguese dictionary inside that script if you want to get the translation of every word. That’s not the issue here.

The issue is who will buy or need such a fragile program. The program has two big problems:

1. The program is storing the data inside the code. In a Python dictionary, to be exact. However, in real life, you should not store data inside your Python code. You should store them in external files, or even better, in a database. That keeps the code more organized. Data belong to data files, not Python files.

2. The program needs a Python interpreter to run, but you can’t expect users to have Python installed to use your program.

So, that program works, but there’s a big gap between writing a program that works and making a program work for real users.

And there’s where beginners fail. When you are a beginner, you most likely don’t know how to bridge that gap. The gap is that you probably don’t know the correct way to set up a database to store your data and connect your Python script to get data from that database. You also may not know how to make the program user-friendly by transforming it into a standalone desktop app or a web app so that users can use it without having to install a Python interpreter.

To bridge that gap, you need to take tutorials that cover how to create real-world programs, otherwise, it can take ages until you learn how to make programs that sell. I have helped thousands of students that have this exact problem in my course: The Python Mega Course: Build 10 Real World Applications.

If you prefer not to be in that 60% who end up quitting because they never experience building a real-world Python application, I’d sincerely invite you to try out the course. Many of my students have kick-started their programming careers by completing the course. If this sounds interesting, you can check out the curriculum that this course has to offer in this link: The Python Mega Course: Build 10 Real World Applications.

You will hardly find comprehensive courses that cover real-world applications on the internet. Don’t miss this opportunity — don’t be part of the 60%.