The two are not mutually exclusive. You can do business while learning programming. Programming /will/ help you in business because with programming you can find answers easier.<p>The first thing I would do if I were you and I know what I know now, I would investigate Platforms as a Service. These services allow you to get up and running with a database driven application very quickly and they reduce the amount of "stuff" you have to learn to build systems. Your goal as a business person is not to be the person everyone goes to to get code done, but they'll come to you for answers in the form of reports, charts, and analysis. Today, you can get very far in that direction without programming. My opinion is that web based Platforms as a Service (PaaS) are the future of systems development. Many will disagree.<p>Lots of people will also disagree with me when I say this, but I would suggest if you <i>are</i> going to learn programming, start with SQL. It's not /that/ difficult, but it is very very powerful. What you want to do as a business person is get complex answers out of a database of numbers. If you sit at the top of a company, you want to be able to drill into any piece of data, any aggregate you want and get the answer you need. These are the kinds of answers you will find yourself relying on a computer guy to get for you.<p>Why do I say SQL? Because nearly every system you will ever use will use SQL. It'll use SQL to create, read, update, and delete data in those massive databases you use. Even if the SQL isn't exposed, you can use SQL to mine your own datasets outside applications. Export them, then import them into your personal database and go to town. You'll be amazed at the answers you can dig out with SQL that you can't get any other way.<p>The first thing you will have to do is install a database server, which you'll need for nearly any kind of business programming anyway. Go with Microsoft SQL Server Express, or MySQL. It depends on your work environment and what most people around you know. Use whatever most people around you use. You can choose something else later.<p>Now, once you learn SQL, you will naturally want to display the results you find on a web page. At that point, you'll learn JavaScript and HTML, plus a connector language like .NET, PHP, or Java (unless you go with a Platform as a Service).<p>If you want to skip SQL, I say learn JavaScript. It's very powerful and used in the browser, so nearly every website uses it. There are tons of tutorials and examples on the web. You can use it on the Pre. It's nearly ubiquitous anymore and all you need to get started is a text editor and a web browser. Most other languages require a lot of setup, installation, and configuration of development environments.<p>That's my $0.02. Ask programmers you know in the real world. They'll be invaluable when you run into problems installing the database, connecting it up and getting something working at all. Once you have that, the sky is the limit.<p>P.S. Your english is totally fine.