Erlang and the learning curve

[JETkoten]

Hi All,

I've been reading/watching everything I can find (off and online) for 
learning Erlang for the past two or three weeks, but am just not getting 
it, in terms of being able to do anything with Erlang in the real world.

I've watched some videos about functional programming where the hosts 
joked about people looking into functional programming deciding it's too 
hard and then never touching it again... but seriously, how do people 
bridge the gap between understanding the basics and implementing real 
world projects with Erlang? I know the three major books are available, 
but none of them are really using Erlang for what I'd like to do...

How have any of you who have come to know big-picture how great Erlang 
is been able to get enough knowledge of it to actually do what you'd 
like to do?

Any and all replies are most welcome.

Thanks,
Jack