Lloyd lives in the Philippines. He works for linksys. He answered the phone at 10:30 pm when I called about my wireless router problem which had unexpectedly appeared most inconveniently on Friday morning just when I needed to send some emails and do some research for my weekend trip. Risha in India (who works for Bell) managed to circumvent the router and get me up and running on a dial-up internet connection on Friday morning so that I could get my work done and I left the router issue for later. Later happened to be tonight as Dean tackled the problem and tried to reset the router but nothing seemed to be working. He gave up. Then I picked up the phone and called for help. After 61 minutes and 18 seconds, Lloyd had managed to navigate through several dead end problems, reset my IP address, upgrade the firmware, reconfigure my router and get both of my laptops running again on a secure wireless network! I actually startled him at one point when I uttered a loud, "Oh my goodness!" as a screen that had been refusing to load finally appeared and I could not contain my excitement! Lloyd said, "You scared me, ma'am!" So polite.
Here are my Lloyd lessons:
1. Call for help when you need it. There are people out there who know more than you do and can help you. To expect that you can solve every problem yourself is a delusion.
2. Be patient. Don't get frustrated at the dead ends that you run into or the tiny steps you have to take, some of them over and over again, without seeing any big results. Anyone listening in on our phone conversation or sitting in the room with me would probably have left from boredom as after 50 minutes nothing much seemed to have been accomplished. Keep going and don't give up. The breakthrough might come at minute 55.
3. Reset. Upgrade. For some reason, my router had reverted back to a default setting (perhaps a power failure) and needed a major reset and upgrade. Don't think that the patterns you established in your life years ago will never need readjusting. Upgrades and resets are a necessary part of learning and maturing and moving forward.
4. Be thorough. Cover every angle with care so that you don't miss something you might need later on. Just one slip when typing a password will deny you access to everything.
5. Don't get easily overwhelmed. Overwhelmedness (not sure that is a word) very often results in inaction. START the process and keep going, one step at a time. I really didn't want to call anyone at 10:38 pm (who would answer the phone at that hour anyway?) but Dean convinced me to try. Thanks, Dean.
6. Develop the ability to trust someone else when you can't see where it will all end. I didn't question every direction Lloyd gave me, I just did what he said.
7. Communicate. Because Lloyd was not in the same room with me, I had to make sure that he knew exactly what I was seeing on my screen or doing at all times so that he could direct me correctly.
8. Be thankful. Whether your wireless network is up and running or you are limited to only one dial-up connection or if everything is offline for a bit...be thankful. And look for creative ways to accomplish what you need to do. There is never only one way.
God bless Lloyd!
Here are my Lloyd lessons:
1. Call for help when you need it. There are people out there who know more than you do and can help you. To expect that you can solve every problem yourself is a delusion.
2. Be patient. Don't get frustrated at the dead ends that you run into or the tiny steps you have to take, some of them over and over again, without seeing any big results. Anyone listening in on our phone conversation or sitting in the room with me would probably have left from boredom as after 50 minutes nothing much seemed to have been accomplished. Keep going and don't give up. The breakthrough might come at minute 55.
3. Reset. Upgrade. For some reason, my router had reverted back to a default setting (perhaps a power failure) and needed a major reset and upgrade. Don't think that the patterns you established in your life years ago will never need readjusting. Upgrades and resets are a necessary part of learning and maturing and moving forward.
4. Be thorough. Cover every angle with care so that you don't miss something you might need later on. Just one slip when typing a password will deny you access to everything.
5. Don't get easily overwhelmed. Overwhelmedness (not sure that is a word) very often results in inaction. START the process and keep going, one step at a time. I really didn't want to call anyone at 10:38 pm (who would answer the phone at that hour anyway?) but Dean convinced me to try. Thanks, Dean.
6. Develop the ability to trust someone else when you can't see where it will all end. I didn't question every direction Lloyd gave me, I just did what he said.
7. Communicate. Because Lloyd was not in the same room with me, I had to make sure that he knew exactly what I was seeing on my screen or doing at all times so that he could direct me correctly.
8. Be thankful. Whether your wireless network is up and running or you are limited to only one dial-up connection or if everything is offline for a bit...be thankful. And look for creative ways to accomplish what you need to do. There is never only one way.
God bless Lloyd!
This is a picture of a playground in St. Catharines Ontario taken on May 28, 2007.
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