Randy Buehler has 8 Grand Prix top 8’s, including a win and 5 Pro Tour top 16’s, including a win! His professional Magic career was cut short when he took a position at Wizards of the Coast, eventually becoming director of Magic R&D and then Vice-President of Digital Games. He has since moved on from Wizards but has never missed a Pro Tour as he is the voice of the Pro Tour webcast. Randy is a class of 2007 member of the Magic Hall of Fame.
Understand what is critical mass. You can get more synergy in draft than in sealed. Through practice you can identify how many synergistic cards you'll actually need to make the strategy work. If you don't have that mass than just play what is good. Look at your rares and try to build around them.
Don't lose track of what you're actually doing by spending a bunch of brain power on trying to remember EVERY thing you've passed.
Don't force colors in draft. Open your first pack and just look at the cards, pick the best card, remember the ones you almost picked and look to the next pack.
Shoot for two colors with a good curve.
For mana, start with 17 lands and count the pips of your cards and match your lands with the ratio of pips.
Double mana symbol cards are very intensive in Limited. Avoid splashing them.
Be familiar with the results of previous events before yours. How does your deck hold up against the decks that did well?
When you are play testing your brew make sure you always run it against a gauntlet deck. Running your brew against a buddy's brew is not good play testing.
Find people you get along with and have similar goals. However, if you don't have a team you can embrace Magic: The Gathering Online and play whenever you want.
If you have a limited budget find players with similar card access as you so you don't get constantly crushed. Find where you are good (try Magic Online) and focus on that format to build your collection.