You have to start at the basics and master them foirst

It’s another way of saying other quotes, such as “You cannot begin a journey without taking the first step” or “You have to crawl before you can walk,” or on and on and on. It simply means everything you do has a beginning, and that is at the most simple basic level. You can’t write a novel before you even know how to make the letters of the alphabet, right? So if you haven’t mastered crawling, then walking, etc., you certainly cannot learn to climb. All goals are mastered by logical, progressive steps. And they all start at the lowest, easiest, most basic levels. Hope this helps.

it is saying that one has to learn the basics before trying to do difficult things. There are other similar phrases or proverbs, such as “don’t try to run before you can walk”, “a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step”, and “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.

that before you can make a big step you must start oyt small. So a easier example you wouldnt, wake up one day and go run a marathon, you would start off with a mile at a time and work your way up.

You can’t do something challenging without first learning the basics.

You gotta start at the beginning and work your way up.

you cannot do/be something great before you do/be something small