It took me time to study each page, to understand the examples, and then to attempt the exercises. It seemed very beautiful.
Then one day I came to a part I couldn't understand: I didn't see how something Axler said followed from the earlier stuff on the page actually followed. I scratched my head for a couple of hours, which is much longer than I'd spent on any previous page.
Eventually I asked a colleague for help. I showed him the page. He asked me to explain what I didn't understand. I started to explain what I knew, and how I didn't understand how this thing followed. As I was explaining it, that part suddenly clicked.
But I got stuck a few more times and didn't persevere.
I wonder whether it would have been better for me to have studied some numerical approach to linear algebra (like Strang's videos) first, rather than going straight into a book that's so abstract and proof-based.
I suppose it depends on your mathematical background.
(Your comment made me think about those folks who were once fit and muscular, then years later they are out of shape, and then they decide to get in shape say how easy it was to get back in shape. They don't realize that part of what made it easy is that they were once in shape, and they still more muscle cells or whatever.)