To the experts who have been in the game a while - Question???

[Stephen.B]

If you were a teacher what is the first thing you would have your student study in order to excel in the field, a vet networker said to me that a good networker does not look at things through Cisco eyes because it leaves you close minded, he said yes learn Cisco but have a fundemental generic understanding of networking in general, things such as cabeling, signaling, FDDI, Token Ring, Ethernet because then when you move on to WAN you will appreiciate better what layer 1 is doing.    The reason I ask is because I am not in a rush to get certified, if I am going to do this I am going to do it right, therefore I ask the TRUE vets their suggestions on where to begin building a foundation   Thanks in advance     Stephen