As a 21 yo guy with absolutely no romantic experience, I’ve tried different approaches to try to get any success at all.

When I first started trying, I didn’t wait long before asking someone out, because I was told that you would be seen as timid/put in the friend zone if you take too long to ask her out.

I then asked someone more experienced for advice, and they told me that maybe I should try to get to know the girl before asking her out. When I still had no success, I was kind of scrutinized and told by this same person that I shouldn’t be using friendship to get sex.

This left me very confused and frustrated, as I feel like I was set up to fail. Is there an in between im missing here?