Take a (Second) Chance on IT

Former Denver Broncos quarterback and current New York Mets minor leaguer Tim Tebow was in the news again this week. It's not for something he either did or (as often happens with Tebow) is trying to do, but rather for something that myth-debunking website Snopes.com say he didn't do. Tim Tebow did not, Snopes attests, formerly take a knee during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" to protest abortion.

There are many pictures of a uniformed Tebow kneeling on a football field, but that's not because he was before-his-time national anthem protester. Anthem protesting by NFL players is again a hot-button topic, however, so Tebow and his blatant kneeling got dragged into the discussion. Of course, the devoutly Christian Tebow actually  knelt as a means of prayerfully acknowledging God. He used to do it so much that we even, if briefly, had a word for it: "Tebowing."

What's interesting about Tebow is his status as a sports figure so beloved that he has repeatedly been given second chances to succeed in pro sports. Lots of guys who were good in college flame out at the next level, but only a handful of them get to flame out over and over again. Tebow, for whatever reason, has even gotten to try, try again in a second professional sport. As noted above, the former Denver Bronco and New York Jet is avidly in the process of becoming a former New York Met.

Here at TestOut Continuing Education, we think second chances are great. And why not? Just because you failed a certification exam doesn't mean that you didn't learn anything at all. It just means that you still have room to grow — which is more or less a permanent condition for all us, incidentally. Especially in the information technology industry, where change is constant and the stuff you know today might be out of date by next week.

So don't give up if you don't pass a certification exam on your first attempt. Find out what you did wrong, commit to additional study and training, and you're sure to improve your performance with time. Tim Tebow used to be famous because he was heck of college football star. That's cool. In away, however, it's even cooler that Tim Tebow is still famous, even if only once in a while, because he never gives up, and keeps on hanging in there. If at first you don't succeed ...