From: Donny MATEO (donny.mateo@sg.ca-indosuez.com)
Date: Mon Nov 04 2002 - 23:56:41 GMT-3
Very nice letter, thank you for the encouragement.
Congrat on the achievement.
Donny
"P. Korkowski"
<kork@korkc130.co To: <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
m> cc:
Sent by: Subject: CCIE Number 10696 in RTP (long)
nobody@groupstudy
.com
04-11-2002 11:20
Please respond to
"P. Korkowski"
Well, it's finally my turn to write the coveted e-mail to the group. I
finally passed in RTP on my 4th attempt, and feel like a huge weight is
now off of my shoulders.
2 years and 10 months ago, I walked into the local Junior College for
the CCNA academy, not even knowing what a router was or even did. When
I asked about becoming a CCIE in the class, I was told that I could not
do it, as the instructor had tried and couldn't do it (couldn't pass the
written), and that if he couldn't do it, nobody else can.
It took me 6 months to get my CCNP, and another 3 months to pass
the CCIE written. It took me almost 2 years to finally pass the lab.
However, in all of the trials and frustrations, I am still extremely
proud of what I have done.
Now that I am off of my soapbox, I want to pass out
encouragement to all of the rest of the candidates who are trying, and
try to offer my meager advice. Read every Cisco Press book you can find
with Command Reference as it's subject (i.e. OSPF Command Reference
Guide, BGP-4 Command Reference Guide), and read all of the recommended
books like Halabi and Doyle.
If you have someone you know that is a CCIE or works for Cisco,
don't be afraid to ask questions. I was fortunate in that two people
that I used worked for Cisco and both had double CCIEs that I could ask
questions of. Through it all, they have become very close friends of
mine, and wanted very much to help me succeed. Not everybody has a
resource like this, but if you have someone that knows a lot about
Cisco, ASK THEM, EVEN IF THEY ARE YOUR CUSTOMER. YOU CAN'T BE AN EXPERT
IN EVERYTHING!!!!
Finally, if you get a chance to build a home lab, start making
your own scenarios. I had several labs that I would modify using X.25
and back-to-back Async routing, so I could implement dialer profiles,
EIGRP Bandwidth-percent commands, and so on. Think outside the box when
studying.
I have a very wonderful wife and supporting employer who were
wonderful throughout my CCIE quest, and would not have ever done it
without them. I failed my CCIE lab attempt a month ago in San Jose, and
came back swearing that I was done and would never try again. That was
when both my wife and boss handed me a little quote, and did not say
anything. I then reprinted this quote, and put it everywhere I could.
The quote is below, for some of you that need some inspiration.
As for the instructor, first thing in the morning I am going to take
great pleasure in going into his classroom with my e-mail from Cisco,
and tell him in front of the class to never tell a student that they
can't do something. Good luck to all of you, and I wish you the very
best.
Paul Korkowski, CCIE # 10696
"Many of life's failures are people who
did not realize how close they were to
success when they gave up."
- Thomas A. Edison
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