The secret to cooking is doing it frequently and setting your kitchen up for easy access to the things you cook with. People just don't cook enough to get comfy with it so they never learn. You also need a mentor to help you. Cooking is about picking some simple dishes and cooking them hundreds of times until you have them down so well you can play around with them and make them better. Most people cook so infrequently that even simple dishes take them too long. Cooking from scratch takes time but the time windows get shorter and shorter the more frequently you cook them.

Last point. A big part about cooking is creating main meals and then left over meals. You can't do that if you don't cook daily. For example I have a roast chicken Thursday night and make stock for the weekend. I have Steak Friday night and use the extra steak pieces for steak and eggs Saturday or Sunday. I like doing pork chops Saturday and making rice for stir fry rice on Sunday. The day old rice and chops make for excellent fried rice. I will also do a Brisket once a month and then use the leftover tallow for steak, eggs, and other cooking that requires fat.

Also like /u/being-poisoned said a good cast iron pan is a necessity. It does need clean though. The only time I don't clean mine is when I toast buns/bread with it. I'd add you need a couple of cutting boards and a quality chefs knife.