But I don't want to rely on others more than I have to - I want to learn and educate myself as much as possible.- How quick is too quick?

That being said, educating yourself and understanding what your goals are are key.  

Getting educated would be the best way to start.

I was on the fence about it for awhile, but I definitely want to keep educating myself in Real Estate.

All the best :) I'm trying to start wholesaling, so I'm asking this out of a genuine desire to be educated.

I'm on the lookout for my first deal, and hope to invest in a small multi-family unit sometime soon to start my real world education.

As you know, the wins keep the lights on and the losses are your education.

Best/first thing to do is get educated.

After that I hope to break into real estate somehow ( I've yet to decide exactly what I'll do—I'm in the early stages of education/exploration).

Marketing strategies, employee requirements, compliance costs/requirements, software costs, training/education, insurance requirements, etc all are not within any model that you would use one another industry model...it is it's own animal, Without explicit insider knowledge of the escrow profession, it is usually a suicide mission to start up an escrow operation.