From: Hough, Earl (Earl.Hough@sarcom.com)
Date: Fri Nov 07 2008 - 22:21:06 ARST
Lloyd,
Take heart. Many people have been where you are, and for as many on
this list who seem to pass on the first time as of late, I am sure there
are scores of other people who are in the same boat as you. Remember,
it's not the destination that's the most important lesson of studying
for this monster - it's the journey and how you get there. Keep
plugging at it and you will succeed!
Earl Hough
CCIE #16508 (R&S/Security)
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
Lloyd Ardoin
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 6:05 PM
To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
Subject: This is my story without and ending...
Let me first apologize for the lengthy post. Although I have been
involved in
GS for over a year I have not been very vocal. I have submitted a
question or
two and have attempted to answer a couple of questions when I felt
confident
that I could provide good information. I needed to talk about my last
attempt
at the lab and wanted to share it with people who understand the plight.
Well I am back from my fourth attempt at RTP for my R&S lab and am
starring at
another failed email from Cisco. I am writing this in hopes to try and
not
internalize all that I am feeling and maybe in some small way help some
one
else. My journey has been a 2 = year one; after leaving a company that I
worked for over 28 years and having my networking position basically out
sourced to a local communication company as a 'managed service'. I
decided at
that time to pursue the CCIE certification so that I could work as long
as I
choose to, make a comfortable living and do interesting work. I spared
no
expense and purchased the equipment to build my own home lab (several
iterations), attended the first of two boot camps with NMC in October of
2006
after passing the written earlier in the year. I spent the rest of 2006
and
most of 2007 doing labs at home and made my first attempt in October of
2007
and of course failed miserably. I signed up for my second boot camp with
IE in
March of this year and after attending felt like I had the tools I
needed to
get the job done. The boot camp pointed out some issues I had with
accuracy
and time management so I focused on those. My second attempt was in June
which
was another struggle to get the lab completed and another fail. Did
another
lab in September and saw that my core technologies were still the cause
of my
lack of success so I came home committed to focusing on those
specifically
which is what I did for the last 30 - 45 days doing core technology labs
and
attempting to strengthen that area up. Somewhat surprisingly and quite a
disappointment yesterday was to see that I still have not been able to
bring
those scores up with any significance and obviously this tells me that I
need
to take a step back and figure out where my process is broken. I have a
passion for technology and an insatiable desire to understand how things
work
and immensely enjoy the learning process. I take a lot of pride in how I
go
about what I am pursuing and always try to be the best I can be. I don't
have
a PHD or Master's degree and my IQ is definitely not in the 120's but
through
my life I have been able to achieve though my desire, persistence and
determination. I am definitely not throwing up the white flag but I do
have to
admit after my two nights of very little sleep and my long flight back
home
this one has definitely knocked the wind out of my sails. I have spent
the
last 2 years or so dedicating my personal time to one mission because it
means
that much to me. Through my journey I have been privileged to meet some
interesting and admirable people who share a lot of the same feelings I
have
about this world of technology and all it has to offer. I have provided
myself
the equipment to study with, acquired study materials from outstanding
vendors, purchased and read most of the recommended reading materials,
spent
most weekends locked up sitting next to my racks doing the work, printed
off
hundreds of pages from the Cisco web site for reference and yet to no
avail.
I knew this was going to be a difficult journey but willing and able to
take
it on but right now I feel like I have been climbing the side of a
mountain
and have slid all the way back down to the bottom and I am looking back
up at
the top that seems so far, far away. Again I say I am definitely not a
quitter and will go home and get some sleep and wake up tomorrow with a
more
determined outlook and sit down and do some serious soul searching to
try and
figure out what is so broken about my study process and pick myself back
up to
start the climb once more.
That is my story without an ending..
To all those who pursue.good luck!
Lloyd
Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
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