I self-taught enough to design and build a working PCB (that passed a bunch of certification testing), including writing programs for an ARM Cortex microcontrol

I self-taught enough to design and build a working PCB (that passed a bunch of certification testing), including writing programs for an ARM Cortex microcontroller. Took about six months of learning and then a couple months of design/implementation to get a product that can be sold and have the fundamentals in place to make similar kinds of products much more rapidly. It's very doable with dedicated study and I'd argue it's one of the best ways to get your design ability to rise to the level of being able to build something from scratch, without reference to other code / searching google for answers.