I’ve gotten 2 hours of sleep in a 44 hr time period, and have a minimum of 5 hours until I can go to bed. Long story..no, it’s not by choice. I’m ready to sleep. Anyway..that’s your forewarning.

I like these posts. I like writing up something that I truly believe, thinking that maybe, just maybe, whether it be tomorrow, or next week, or five years from now- that someone will be motivated or inspired by my words. So here goes.

Getting the CCIE for me isn’t an option. I have to. No, I mean, I really have to. It’s a curse sometimes. Why? I’m not the best engineer. I’m not the smartest guy. I wasn’t blessed with a family that was well off. At times, my life has been rough. I’ve worked hard to earn what I have. I make up for my lack of brilliance with cisco equipment by hard work, and perserverence. It can be a pain in the ass, knowing that I have mounds of documentation and various cisco books to read, in addition to videos and labbing..just to get on the same level as some of those Cisco guru’s out there.  I’ve decided to quit before, because of personal reasons. I came back. I will always come back, until I get the CCIE. Why? You’re going to think I’m insane, stupid, or maybe a combination…but it’s almost biological. My brain is wired in such a way that I have tunnel vision in regards to the CCIE. If I quit studying today, I would get the CCIE 10 years from now. Maybe 15. It’s really not a choice. That’s great, but it sucks sometimes too. I literally am unable to sit at home and do nothing most of the time..just ask my wife. If I’m at the doctors office waiting for an appointment, or eating lunch alone, I’m probably looking at cisco blogs on my iphone. I get home and briefly read some cisco docs or lab something real quick before dinner..THEN I study after dinner. Again, I might not be the brightest, but once I get my number, I promise that nobody will doubt whether or not I put in the work.

Where it started

As a child, I used to constantly say “I’m going to be rich”, “I’m going to do this, do that” etc. Everyone laughed..they knew it wouldn’t happen. One of my fondest memories is of my grandmother who passed away years ago- I was probably 14 years old, and said “I’m going to be a millionaire”. The laughing began in the room. My grandmother silenced everyone, looked at me in the eyes, and said “Mikey..you will do whatever you set your mind to. I promise“. That moment feels like it happened yesterday. Infact, that is the last memory I have of my grandmother.

Fast forward, I haven’t been OK with the idea of not attaining goals that I decide on. What are my goals? Well, yeah, the CCIE is a goal. I think a lot of the CCIE for me is not only the certificate, or the status, or the money- it’s kind of the validation that I can always do bigger and better things. And the CCIE is just the beginning. As I started studying the CCIE exam cert guide for the written, I already started telling myself “after I pass, which track is next?”, and by the way, it’s looking like SP. I imagine once I pass the R&S lab whenever that is, I’ll probably have a third in mind. I don’t know.

The thing is, it’s not just a cisco thing. I love what I do, and I love the technology, but I might not always be in this industry. In 10 years, I could be a double or triple CCIE, and decide that I want to get into real estate development (something I’ve thought about for a while), or try to do something even bigger than I can imagine now..I don’t know. 

The whole point I hope to pass on is, regardless of what you do, you absolutely can do it..if you want to. You have to have the passion, and the drive, and the rest will fall in place. It might not happen as soon as you’d like it, but it will happen.