When I started my career in IT in June 2000, I left behind a successful career as a police sergeant. In fact, I’d been a detective and had passed the exams to become an inspector. The problem was I no longer enjoyed the job I once loved, and nothing was going to change that fact. I needed a career change.
So, I started my helpdesk job, which was a three hour drive from where I lived. I also took a huge pay cut despite having a family to support and a mortgage to pay.
My situation was now this: I was a 30-year-old man working with people in their early 20s. I was living on around 60% of what I was earning previously, but my costs had gone up significantly because I had to rent a room in a house during the week and then catch the train home on weekends.
I was told that everyone had to work on the helpdesk for 12 months before they would be considered for a move to a higher tier of support or another team. And yet, three months later, I had passed my Microsoft MCSE. I was taken off the helpdesk and put onto a network support team. A few weeks after that, I was working for Cisco systems doing WAN support. Two years later, I was running my own IT consultancy company, which I later sold.
Many of the people I’d been working with over the years were doing the same job all this time. Most had taken no certification exams but were very worried about job security and their long-term career prospects. Most of them were smarter and more talented than me, but nothing had changed for them.
So, what was the difference between them and me?
Well, I can tell you it wasn’t natural ability. I was at best an average IT engineer. I was surrounded by some really smart people who could easily master subjects and concepts that would take me weeks to understand. It wasn’t down to who I knew because I wasn’t a friend of any of the bosses. In fact, any time I went for a promotion interview, I failed. I didn’t have more time than anybody else due to long commutes to work and long working hours.
Looking back, it all came down to one simple thing: Ambition.
The ambitious person will win every time because they are hungry for it. “It” being whatever goal they are trying to achieve. The ambitious person will do whatever it takes. You won’t see them making excuses or complaining about how hard it is. Others will call them lucky or ask them why they are so motivated, but that question has no answer.
Think about people who have achieved success against the odds: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Branson, Barack Obama, and so on.
I can’t tell you how many times people have come on one of my IT courses or joined my website to take an exam and quit. The figures would frighten you, in fact. I can tell the ambitious ones because they turn the TV off. They spend hours every night doing labs, taking exams, and contributing on the forum.
I see them posting their success stories on the forum and then telling us which exams they are taking next. They are getting the promotions at work and being head hunted by the big companies.
Ambition
Ambition comes from getting clear on why you would want to pass your exams. For me, it meant I could support my family, be closer to them, and find more rewarding and fulfilling work as compared to being a helpdesk monkey having to ask permission to leave my desk to go to the toilet.
The enemy of a great life is a comfortable life. If we have a reasonable standard of living, then the chances are we won’t feel motivated unless there is some pain in there. I’ve told you what my pain was at the start.
Change is coming for all of us, so it’s up to you to prepare for it before it happens.
I hope it helps.
Paul Browning
Thanks for posting. This was very motivational for me as I needed this boost to finish what I started with the MCSE.
Thank you for great advice and support. I’ve been working on my CCNP for over a year. I used so many excuses why I don’t take it. You post changed my perception and boost me to go after what I want.
Thanks again..
Hi Paul,
I passed my CCNA last end of month just by following your book. I do not have a IT background a all but the structure of your book, the website and packet tracer did the job for me…I forgot the past questions are important too.
I feel strong to go for CCNP or MCSA now and get a job in IT as system administrator or engineer.
Thank you very much.
Beber
Keep the articles coming, they really do help.
I got divorced from my ex wife about a year and a half ago. All of my friends were telling me to go back out there and play the field but I saw this as an opportunity to make a change in my life. I hunkered down and spent ten months learning linux and preparing for the RHCSA exam. My first attempt was failure by only eleven points but instead of crying about it, it motivated me even more! Two weeks later I took it again and destroyed that test only missing one question. Two months after that I started a new job as a Systems Administrator working on both Linux and Unix servers. This is only the beginning up next is the RHCE, so my advise to anyone that wants to listen just cut out all of the noise and focus because if I can do it anyone can.
Words from experience Paul. I was in the same situation as you, only across the pond. Working as a Correctional Sergeant needing a change. That’s when I found your CCNA in 60 Days. At times during my studies I really had my reservations as to my being intelligent enough to comprehend all the info I was bombarding myself with. In the end I knew failure wasn’t an option, and although I failed my ICND2 my first time, I went right back to studying and passed 3 weeks later. I start my first IT gig as a network specialist for the 3rd largest cable provider in the US on August 3rd. Thanks Paul!!
You are right.
“Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves”
Quran 13:11.
I’d like to say this before you read the following: This was MY fault, I’ve always been pretty lucky and got by “on the skin of my teeth” with the slimmest (or no) credentials. That is until my luck ran out, and everything else with it. Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope it helps someone from making the mistakes I made. “A smart person learns from their mistakes, a wise person learns from others mistakes”.
I’ve been in the telephony field for almost 30 years. The first 25 years I enjoyed it, made great money & felt secure in my position until I tried to move up (then my problems began). Long story short, I got passed over several times by people with less time, experience, & education and weren’t ashamed to rub it in my face. When I asked why, the response I got stunned me: “Your too much of an “asset” in the position you’re in, you should be satisfied where your at and not push your luck any further”.
After words, I lost my job in 2008 due to the “economic down turn”. The last seven years of my life have been the toughest I’ve ever seen, I was homeless for almost 4 months living in my car at a rest area (called “Bloody Benders”) in Kansas. I’m finally back in the industry working for another company and hate it. I get about a 4th of what I made at the other job ($165K per year to $43K per year) and work an average of 65 or more hours a week. Back in late April, early May 2013, I worked 87 hours the first week and 119 hours the next week, I got the check to prove it. What I got paid would make you laugh. I also passed out from exhaustion and dehydration that same week. My blood sugar was over 600, the doctor said he would not allow me to go back to work and was forced to go on sick leave for two months, I fell into a deep depression and now I’m an insulin dependent diabetic).
After coming back to work, I started looking for other positions within the company that wouldn’t take such a heavy toll on me. Just when I thought I hear it all, management BOLDLY drops this on me: “The only way you’d leave this job was to quit. Your outdated, under qualified, and too old to get anything better. You can either quit, die, or man up and deal with it. Face it, your “F’d!!!”. This was the “pain” I needed.
Paul, I seen your download on Udemy about Depression & fixing the leaky bucket, I got it and it is what I needed, a true Blessing, thanks!!!! I’m using tuition assistance to get my CCNA, so far I’ve passed the first part (perfectly) and now I’m taking the second part. Your story is very inspirational, please keep it coming. No one but me, is responsible for my life. Again, thanks.
This is so true. I work with a lot of talented people as well, but they just go home after work and play computer games and wonder why they’ve been on the desk for 5 years.
IT is a career where you have to constantly be learning to really progress. I passed my mcse 5 years ago and got complacent, and have now realized how much I’ve forgotten so now I’m updating all my certs so I can stay at the top of my game!
Everything happens for a reason Lloyd.
Once you get qualified you become more valuable and your experience suddenly counts for a lot.
Regards
Paul
Great news Eric,
regards
Paul
Sounds similar to my story Jay.
Great news.
Paul