From: Terry Vinson (consultant@tnclimited.com)
Date: Sat Nov 08 2008 - 12:38:38 ARST
Hello Lloyd,
I don't have my CCIE (yet) but I'm going for my first try on November
25, 2008.
I was really thankful that you took the time to send your story and I
both respect and appreciate your position. I am 42 years old, a father
of four boys ( ages 2,3,9,18) and I work full time as a consultant.
With that said you can imagine the amount of time I get to study. So I
feel your pain.
When I was 19 years old I joined the Army. I was a tall, weak, skinny,
uncoordinated geek. So as you can imagine the Drill SGT's loved me. I
was their favorite play thing for the first five weeks of basic
training. One day we where on the obsticle course where we had to climb
this huge wall. I tried and tried and could get over it. I climbed,
and fell probably about a dozen times. One of the Drill SGT's, came
over and started to add to my shame, as if everyone else laughing at me
wasn't enough. He told me to get up, step back, assess, adapt and
overcome.
I tried a few more failed attempts and then gave up, as I started to
walk away the Drill Sgt (who suddenly started to look human) put me to
attention. He walked over and asked me if I was taking a pounding. To
which I answered yes. He smiled and then asked me if I knew how to make
a sword. To which I didn't have an answer. He told me they forge them
by heating them and pounding them over and over. The sharpest and
strongest swords are beaten hundreds (maybe thousands) of times.
Something that would ordinarily destroy them. The process burns away
the weakness and the pounding hardens the metal so that it will take an
edge. He asked me if I knew the old saying, "that which doesn't destroy
us makes us stronger", to which I said yes. Then he screamed, "Then
turn your ass around and climb my #$)%@!! wall you low life
maggot!!!!". (by the way any vestige of humanity dissolved at that moment)
It was weeks later before I could scale that wall, and I never would
have done it with out the help of several of the guys in the platoon.
But when I got over it you would have thought I won the lottery. I was
ten foot tall and bullet proof.
The moral of the story is no matter what anyone says the CCIE or
anything you want bad enough is a *personal victory*. You can't compare
it someone else's accomplishment of the same goal. Everyone has their
own weakness, strengths, demons and angels that make the feat of passing
the exam completely different for each of us.
So in Drill Sergeant Cummings Immortal words.
"Get your ass up! Dust yourself off! If your hurt RUB SOME DIRT IN IT,
you'll be fine! Step back! ASSESS, ADAPT, OVERCOME.
and get your ass up that wall! If pounding makes you strong then I'm
going to make you Hercules you low lif...." (well you get the point!)
Keep the faith (in yourself),
Warmest Regards
Terry
Lloyd Ardoin wrote:
> 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
>
>
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>
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