To begin with, I would learn how to search this forum, there are already plenty of threads answering your question. Machine thread is for machine questions, not how to start pentesting… So, I would also learn how forums work in the first place, than I will move to something more difficult. Also hacking is a driven force that begins from your childhood, not because I watched mr robot I now want to become one of them 
/jk
[edit] If you can spend a month on a box without asking for tips but just what the forum thread can give you, and solve it, then you are on the right track and you should keep going, prove to yourself that you have: obstinacy, willfulness to make it and tenacity; otherwise you can just look at the statistics, where there are more than 150K users, but owned boxed don’t get more than 17K users… and that says a lot to me… and should to others as well. (sorry if I sound bitchy)