It is said that when we learn, we move through four stages:

1. Unconscious incompetence       We don't know what we don't know.
Blissful ignorance.
Confidence is greater than ability; we do not have the knowledge or skill necessary to fulfil the task.
We lose a little confidence as we realise that we do not know, and therefore move to the next step. 

2. Conscious incompetence                    We know what we don't know.
We wish to increase knowledge or learn a new skill.
We realise our knowledge or skill is low and confidence falls – we must gain confidence to proceed. We need to use the skills and knowledge in order to learn; often this means not achieving our goal at first, which can be seen as 'failure'; this makes us uneasy.

3. Conscious competence             We know what we know and can do.
We have the knowledge or skill. Confidence rises with our ability. We must concentrate on what we know or do, in order to achieve the goal.

4. Unconscious competence                  What we do, we do intuitively.
The skills or knowledge become second nature. We have a high level of confidence and ability.

This is a continuous growth process, when we have reached level 4, we start again as we move to a new skill set or skill level. In different areas of our life we will be at different stages on different learning curves.

This learning curve can be applied to most business practices, including sales, marketing and negotiating. Whether you are the buyer or seller, you should understand your own position on the learning curve and that of others. In this way you will be able to develop yourself first, and work with others on development.
In negotiation, or when selling or marketing, very often the first step is to understand the position of the other party on the learning curve, and explain your product or service offering, taking them up the curve, to ensure they can make an educated decision or argument.

The author(s) of this learning curve (also known as the conscious competence learning model) is not known. Sources as old as Confucius and Socrates are cited as possible originators as well as various modern authors.