OK hold your horses, in reality it is not that difficult!

One problem when following guides to do the more advanced stuff is that the people writing the guides don't even think about what could a newbie do wrong... when one has lived with this and breathed gnu stuff for tens of years one tends to forget every step is not self-evident to people still learning it...

But the good thing is that you are forced to learn really well when you try to figure out the why's yourself, that's the way to become a real hacker