Expertise Does Not Eliminate the Need to Remain a Student
Last week, I failed the AIGP exam.
Today, I passed it.
And somewhere between those two results, I was reminded of something important:
Expertise does not eliminate the need to remain a student.
The first result hit me hard.
Over the weeks leading up to the exam, I had worked through more than 700 practice questions and consistently performed strongly in my practice assessments.
Naturally, those results gave me confidence that I was ready.
Then came the actual exam.
And the result was a shocker.
I was down. Very down.
But I also knew I could not stay there.
I did not want to spend weeks replaying the disappointment or allow one result to become bigger than it was. There were other areas I needed to move on to, so the only reasonable response was to brace up, study more intensely, identify the gaps, and go again.
So I did.
One week later, I passed.
But there is another lesson from this experience that I think is worth saying.
Not everyone makes it on the first sitting. And passing on the first sitting, by itself, does not determine who will ultimately thrive in a field.
A certificate can validate knowledge, but it is no guarantee of success. And the absence of one is no excuse for failure.
Perhaps this is also why we should be careful about how we regard people when they fall, fail, or experience a setback.
Such moments call for grace, not ridicule.
Sometimes, having to return to something develops a different kind of rigor. You study differently. You interrogate what you thought you knew. You discover gaps confidence may have hidden. You learn how to recover.
And when you finally come through it, you not only have knowledge of the subject,
You have applied knowledge of bouncing back.
That experience may someday become the very thing you use to encourage, teach, or guide someone coming behind you.
So today, I celebrate the win.
AIGP ✅
But I am equally grateful for what happened last week.
Because the higher we rise in our fields, the more important it becomes to remember that we never graduate from being students.
And if you have recently experienced a setback:
Dust off the disappointment.
Dust off the shame.
Get back up.
Your success still calleth.