1 Patience. It takes an awfully long time to pick your first lock; and every subsequent lock thereafter. 2 A basic knowledge of how most locks work, buy a training lock so that you can see what is going on inside. Anything like this will be fine, they are cheap and it's how I got my first start on understanding how the damn things (which are EVERYWHERE) work. https://www.ebay.com/itm/5pcs-Lock-Pick-Practice-Tools-Hooks-Set-Padlock-Pick-Set-for-Locksmith-Training/142995617222?hash=item214b33f5c6:g:eHMAAOSwP9Jb2R8u:rk:2:pf:1&frcectupt=true Or you can just build your own to have a real lock to work with, here is a guide that I posted on Voat a while back: https://www.voat.co/v/Lockpicking/1918024 3 Practice. Practice practice practice!!! Locks are not made to be picked easily (for obvious reasons) and so just sticking with it and learning and practicing your skills is the best thing that you can do if you really want to do something that almost nobody else can do. There are thousands of videos on jewtube that you can find, some of which I will post here. I remember my first "open" and WOW, I felt so good about myself. Great highs are hard to come by, I really enjoyed that one.