To understand how I got started, you need to understand that people are either a native digital citizen or an immigrant digital citizen. Being a native digital citizen means that when you’re 10 years old you’re using everything. You’re using YouTube. You’re using the Internet. I was an immigrant to the digital age. In 2001, I decided to do something about migrating to the digital age. That’s when my Cisco certification journey began. I was interested in routers and switches, so I did my CCNA in 2001. That certification landed me a job as IT manager. Next, I did my CCNP in 2006 or 2007. At the same time, I was looking to go for cybersecurity, so I also earned by CyberOps Associate certification. In addition, I became a Cisco Certified Instructor, working with different partners and different public and private sectors in the US and Europe.

In 2012, I began my journey towards CCIE certification. I already had CCNP Security, CCNP Routing and Switching, plus all the CCNA level, including CCNA wireless, voice, and CCDA. After a few failed attempts, I passed in 2014. During that time, I started writing lots of articles and documentation and shared it for free in the Cisco Learning Network. I discovered that a lot of CCIE students were collecting my PDFs, so the Cisco Learning Network Community Manager worked with me to place my documents in a folder that community members could more easily access for learning.

The act of sharing my CCIE study PDFs made me realize how important it is to share knowledge with others. We need to have the passion to share our knowledge and help others. That's why I create a lot of videos. I create a lot of articles in my native language, so people in the community can understand it. Sharing motivates you to keep going, too. You want to read more to create another valuable thing for yourself, so that you can keep sharing.