To tell you the truth, initially when I picked up a pendulum I had no idea what I was doing, I just dabbled in it and because of that, I lost interest very quickly (this was many, many years ago). Then a while later, I 'met' (on the web) someone who became a dowsing mentor to me and I learned everything I know about dowsing from him. At that point, I had instant success. Of course since then I have learned more on my own too.