Being Thankful

Although my VCDX-NV attempts until now weren’t coronated with a number! YET! Before even thinking about writing a post about my experience/s and my journey, I have the urge to be thankful.

Prophet Muhammad (Salla Allahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) said: “He whom does not thank the people (whom has done good to him/her), does not thank Allah”.

If the community is anything, it is a momentum of inspiration and being part of the community has aided me in thriving constantly to higher goals, my journey towards VCDX started in 2013 at VMworld Europe and from that point onwards it became/still an obsession and it became a driver to so many things in the following years.

I’d like to first start by thanking Allah all mighty for his grace, blessings and for everything, especially the things we perceive for granted (sight, breath, limbs, speech, mind, heart) the little things that so many people are deprived from and for so many of us these blessings are overlooked, for that I am thankful with every breath and every heartbeat.

My mother, the strongest women I have ever known and will probably know, that woman who had to raise two children on her own, despite a rigid community and harsh conditions, she fought and struggled to prepare me and my sister to face the world, she kept a smile, neglected herself at a young age and always put us first. To my mother, I bow down and kiss your feet in appreciation to what you’ve done and even with that I wouldn’t be even starting to repay you a shred of what you’ve given us.

My wife, if there has been a companion to my journey, that companion is definitely my wife. She had the patience and strength to withstand my demanding job, my lack of presence at home because of the continuous travels and obviously spending long nights after work preparing for VCDX. One would be too lucky to have a such a companion, I couldn’t have made it here without her unconditional love and support.

My boy, whom I missed his kindergarten graduation because of my second defense schedule, and although being only 6 of age, he somehow appreciated that I was preparing for something big, on the same day my second defense result came out, he hugged me before going to work and told me “Dad, In Shaa Allah you will be successful”, I don’t know if this is because VCDX was controlling my surrounding or because he felt my anxiety and stress, but until this moment I haven’t informed him of this second failure, maybe I am too shy to tell him, as fathers we thrive to be at our best so that our children can be their best, failure is not something to be ashamed from as we learn and get better through the process, on the other hand seeing disappointment on the faces of those whom look up to you is definitely not something to look forward to.

My company, ICC and then CCi for giving me the exposure to work on enterprise level projects and for their trust all the way, I will always be in appreciation and in gratitude to what you’ve given me since the day I joined such a fine company with a caring and supportive management, and this includes the many customers that I have worked with and definitely learned from.

My friends, my co-workers and all of my peers whom have been anticipating my success and helping me whenever it was possible, thank YOU!

My mentor, René van den Bedem, whom since 2013 (we were in the same VCDX workshop room) been inspiring me constantly. Thank you for pushing me, thank you for pushing me, thank you for pushing me. Following René and knowing the kind of top quality community participation he has made, was definitely a trigger for me to ask him to mentor me and although he has a very busy schedule he managed to be there when I needed him and I am very much thankful for his continuous guidance.

The vCommunity, thank you for your selflessness, thank you for giving me your time, efforts and help, I appreciate each second that has been put into aiding me throughout my journey, I would have never been prepared for the defenses without your help, thank you is the least I can say.

The VCDX workshops, I have attended all of those workshops since 2013 and with every workshop I would be able to catch a little detail that helped me during my preparation, these sessions are always inspiring, and these sessions always helped me to further keep focus on proper preparation, thank YOU!

VCDX-NV Attempt 1 (34 mocks between October and December of 2017) vCommunity thank you list (ordered by mocks schedules in my calendar with no preference ^_^):

1. Jayson Block
2. Melissa Palmer
3. Kiran Reid
4. Bilal Ahmad
5. Brian Gerrard
6. Kim Bottu
7. Kyle Jenner
8. Shady ElMalatawy
9. Rebecca Fitzhugh
10. Bayu Wibowo
11. Edward Haletky
12. Iwan Hoogendoorn
13. Paul McSharry
14. Russel Pope
15. John Arrasjid
16. Faissal Hassan (before he became a panelist)
17. Hammad Alam
18. Shahzad Ali
19. Maqsood Siddqui
20. Sjors Robroek (before he became a panelist).

A special thank you to Gregg Robertson for putting the VCDX slack channel which is the go-to community place for VCDX related topics.

VCDX-NV Attempt 2 (10 mocks) vCommunity thank you list (ordered by mocks scheduled in my calendar with no preference ^_^):

1. My elite study group:
   1. Iwan Hoogendoorn
   2. Shady ElMalatawy
   3. Bal Birdy
   4. James Schallau
2. Brett Guarino
3. Fouad El Akkad
4. Igor Zecevic
5. Michael Rudloff
6. Manny Sidhu
7. Hammad Alam

A special thank you to Mark Brookfield and Katarina Wagnerova, they were kind enough to offer me hospitality whilst staying in London (which I sadly had to waiver because I wanted to do some face-to-face mocks in Staines), on the other hand because of the talk about logistics I found out that my ticket was booked for the wrong dates and I was about to miss my defense or I would have been forced to pay a ton of money to be able to get a ticket on the spot (which was almost impossible), but I was lucky enough Alhamdulillah to fall into a sequence of events which lead to sorting everything out :).

If I missed anyone, please do accept my apologies, once more thank you to everyone whom ventured with me on this endeavor.

The quest is not over, stay tuned to know what my number is going to be =).

NB: Arabesque circle credit PNGTree.

(Abdullah)^2