Are you looking to build an incredible career in technology? Would you like to know how to get your
first cloud architect job or how to advance in your tech career? If so, this video is for you.
Hi. My name is Michael Gibbs, and I'm the Founder and CEO of Go Cloud Architects.
And I've been working in technology for over 25 years, and coaching and mentoring others
to build their best careers for two decades now. Normally, you hear me talk about interview skills,
developing executive presence, high levels of emotional intelligence, and communication skills,
both verbal and written. But today, we're going to talk about something different. Today,
we're going to talk about the secret weapon for achieving your dreams. And that's your mind,
your mental toughness, your grit, your inner strength, and your willingness to fight until you
get to your goals. So when people ask me and I get asked everyday, how to build a great tech career?
I tell them this, go after it. If you want to be a cloud architect,
network engineer, software professional, go after it and you will achieve it.
Now, I'm not saying any of this is going to be easy, it isn't. And nothing worthwhile is ever
going to be easy, so prepare to fight, prepare to battle, but you will win. So, go after what
you want like your life depends on it. Literally, put everything you have into it and you will win.
There's nothing stopping you other than you. And that's one of life's biggest lessons. It's so
important. I'm going to say it again. There is nothing stopping you other than you. You
can do anything if you put enough time, effort, enthusiasm, and love into what you do, and you
never quit. In the end, you will be successful. You are in complete control of your future.
Sure, there's obstacles and there's things that are there, but get rid of them, move them, and you
will win. Look, champions are not born, they're built. What makes a champion so successful? They
prioritize winning. And, how do they win? Hard work, dedication, and good training.
A champion spends every moment either training or thinking about how to improve their craft.
Champions don't talk about work-life balance. They talk about getting the better. They want
to be the best. The better they get, the more they want to be better. So, go after your dreams.
And sometimes the hardest part is just starting. It's been said that the journey of a thousand
miles begins with a single step, and it's true. Sometimes the hardest part is just to start. So,
guess what? Believe in yourself and start. And do this everyday until that champion mentality
becomes part of your mindset. And when you do and you have that mindset, now take bigger steps
and set new goals. But don't just set goals, set smart goals. Smart goal are specific, they're
measurable, they're achievable, they're results are added, and they're time-based. Set goals.
And every time you reach a goal, you celebrate that victory. And you remember that no matter
how hard it got, how tired you were, you made it. And you know that if you made it, you can do it
again. So, do this. Now, take all your next goal and attack it with the ferociousness of a lion,
attack it and crush that goal too. Now, you conquered another goal,
so have another celebration. You celebrate that victory. You remember what it feels like to win.
It's really important to know what it feels like in your mind to win,
so you'd want to keep winning. It feels wonderful. So, celebrate that victory like every victory.
And then as soon as you celebrate that victory, keep your laser-like focus and go attack your
next goal. Never stop working to achieve your goals. Keep working to get better everyday.
If you work hard, I'm telling you that ultimately you will really reach your destination.
Now, I'm not going to pretend that there won't be starts and stops along the way,
there will be. But that's part of why I'm saying to be strong.
Attack everything, attack. And if you push with enough force, with enough love, with enough
passion, energy, and enthusiasm, you will win. So, keep winning. Now, if your goals are unrealistic,
something like being Superman and flying through the sky, well, then you're not going to achieve
your goals. But we talked about specific, measurable, achievable, results are added,
and time-based goals. And I will tell you that I've witnessed miracles, and they're not
miracles. What's going on is someone has a fight that's so strong, they will conquer their goals.
I worked in internal medicine and I've seen patients that everyone thought was literally
not going to survive the night, walk out of the hospital and live for 20 or 30 years more. I've
seen people that were confined to wheelchairs, that spent six hours a day in physical therapy,
people that were told they would never walk again, run marathons. Why? Because they fight.
I have family members that are immigrants that have come to this country with nothing and then
provided an incredible level of support for their family. It's amazing what could be done. And,
what did my family members that do that too? They work two and three jobs. They
did whatever was necessary. And they took good care of their kids and their kids did great.
So whatever your goal is, fight for it, achieve it, and you'll do it. I can tell you
personally how hard I fought. When I went to the university, I had to pay for it myself and it was
quite expensive. So, what I did is this. I went to school from seven to three, Monday through Friday.
From three to 11, Monday through Friday, I work as a paramedic. You know what I did 11 to seven,
three days a week? I worked again as a paramedic. And every Saturday and Sunday,
I worked a 16 hour day. And I did this when I was in school for the whole four years.
Trust me, it wasn't easy. I'd wake up with three hours of sleep. I'd be exhausted,
but I'd still get the job done. And I did it for four years. You know what happened at the
end of the four years? I had a wonderful wife. I was finished school. Things were really great.
I didn't even have any student loans because I worked so hard. And I had the job I wanted,
everything I had, because I met my goals. But, goals change. So I reached those goals and I said,
I want more. So, I went to graduate school and I started getting tech certifications. And I
didn't get the simple ones. I got the hard ones because I had big dreams. I became one of the
first Cisco Certified Internet Experts and I had the CISSP for security. And I studied every day,
and everyday I worked to get better. So, I'm not telling you to do something that
I wouldn't do. These are things that I do. And, you know what? Every day, I do the same thing.
I've had a massive injury, and the injury has left me having to fight every single day.
I have five herniated discs in my neck and back. Both rotator cuffs are torn and require surgery,
which they can't do on me. I've got labral tears in both hips. I need one knee replacement. And
I have a left foot that's been shattered for so bad that it takes me two hours to
get out of bed in the morning just to be able to walk down the stairs in my house.
But guess what? I do it. Life throws obstacles in our way and we need to
conquer those obstacles because if you conquer those obstacles, you can achieve anything. So
no matter your starting point, if you want more out of life, more out of your career, go get it,
go after your dreams. And when you see obstacles, and they will exist, attack until the obstacle is
obliterated, and then it won't be an obstacle anymore. See, in life, there's no participation
trophy, so fight for your dreams and go get them. Thank you so much for watching this video. Now,
go get your dreams. I know you have big dreams and I have big dreams for you too. Thank you so much.
Let me tell you about some programs that we have for the cloud architect community.
Every Monday and every Thursday, we have a free "How to get your first cloud architect
job?" webinar. On this webinar, we teach you what employers desire? How to build the perfect resume?
What employers are looking for us? So you know how to make yourself work employers desire,
so you can get hired. We talk about emotional intelligence. We talk about interview skills.
And it will be incredibly helpful for you getting your first technology job.
It's free. It's on Monday and Thursday. I will leave the link in the description below.
Every Tuesday, what we have going on is we have a "How to get cloud architect experience?" webinar.
And the reason we put this webinar together is a lot of people want to get their first job,
and the jobs require experience, and how do you get experience without a job.
So we know exactly what employers want and we can teach you how to get the right kind of experience
from the comfort and safety of your home, so you can get hired. We do that every Tuesday.
Many Wednesdays, but not all, we actually do a YouTube live. And on these YouTube lives,
you can bring us any cloud architect career question and we'll answer them for you real
time. And we've just implemented the Ask Cloud Mike. My email is in the description below.
If you have any questions that you'd like us to boost a YouTube video related to developing your
cloud architect career or your tech career, we will create a video for you. Thank you so much
for watching this video. We look forward to seeing you in another video very soon.