I've been in the computer industry since 92, first as a computer animation student (3d Studio, then Max (I sucked), then as audio vidoe compute and training consultant for Exxon offshore platforms and building computers since the beginning.
Finally I went to school and earned my MCSE, MSDBA and CCNA and went to interview for an assistant admin position for a smb non-profit (10 servers, 80 workstations, 180 end users) and the day of my interview they fired the SysAdmin and viola I was a System Administrator (that was 15 months ago).  Since then I've upgraded every workstation and server to new HP hardware, W2K on all the workstations, 2003 Server on all the servers (from nt4 and 2000 mixed mode), exchange 2003 from 5.5 and SQL 2000, from soho switches to within the last 2 months a pure Cisco shop (including PIX and VOIP (were almost done with it) with 6 physical locations (4 within a mile and connected over Cisco wireless) and 2 60 miles away (in different directions).
Needless to say I work 70 hours a week, and most of the time it is trial by fire but I love doing it.
I'll share what I've learned (and alot of it has been here, thanks again).