Lesson One: fairness is a figment of the collective imagination, don't count on it 'cause it ain't real.

You can't go wrong with drawing – do yourself a favour and start on paper with conventional media, especially pencil and charcoal, draw from observation and try to figure out what you really see, not what you think you see. About 80% of what we perceive as our vision is actually filled in by imagination. Find some tutorials on perspective, either on the net or in books, often second hand book stores have great old books that you can pick up for the basics (and a laugh).

Then master a vector as well as a bitmap editing application, consider subscribing to computer arts magazine, computerarts.co.uk, back issues are great and cheaper. Spend time in bookshops looking at design, architecture, décor and art books. Then start playing with 3d software – blender shouldn't be too hard to get a copy of.

Good luck with getting into industrial design, it's not great if things aren't the way you want them to be but rather try and see it as a challenge to your creative abilities and conviction, me thinks if you want it bad enough you'll find a way, but bitching seldom fixes much.