Eleven Rules of Life

Eleven Rules of Life

BILL GATES' SPEECH TO MT. WHITNEY HIGH SCHOOL in Visalia, California.
Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this!

To anyone! with kids of any age, here's some advice. Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

🙂 Geez Bill...

Might have to stop Diss'n MacroSlops software. I never knew the Gate Keeper had it in him. Pretty good. 😕

Some of that's rubbish, some very nice. But I like #11.

Originally posted by royalchicken
Some of that's rubbish, some very nice. But I like #11.

Originally posted by Phlabibit
Where's the rubbish, my young friend?

Phla-

I have to agree with Royalchicken. On the surface it seems like Bill Gates is imparting good, solid advice of the Horatio Alger, "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" variety. But I'm afraid all he is really trying to do is to crush their spirit and get them to accept their lot as being nothing more than a cog in the corporate machine. He's saying that for 99% of you, your life will be nothing more than unfulfilled expectations and broken dreams, so you might as well get used to it.

Originally posted by rwingett
I have to agree with Royalchicken. On the surface it seems like Bill Gates is imparting good, solid advice of the Horatio Alger, "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" variety. But I'm afraid all he is really trying to do is to crush their spirit and get them to accept their lot as being nothing more than a cog in the corporate machine. He's saying that f ...[text shortened]... thing more than unfulfilled expectations and broken dreams, so you might as well get used to it.

I couldn't have said it better than Master Rwingett. Each of Gates' statements likely describes a fact about the world, but taken together they present a point of view that is defeatist and unnecessarily single-minded.

I agree with every one of Bill Gate’s statements, and feel the overall message is very positive. Take rule 6. Learning from your mistakes is one of the most positive goals you can have (it’s also the best method for improving your chess). Don’t blame others, or bury your head in the sand. Do something about it.
Of course life isn’t fair, and most people’s expectations are limited. But the only person who can save you is yourself. Yes, expect to fail, fail and fail again. What does it matter? The important thing is to keep trying.

Dave

Originally posted by billwesthoff
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Originally posted by genius
do you all really beleive that bill gates delouses his closet?!?

I almost didn't post on this thread as I work for Bill and some may call me unfairly biased in my support for what he said.

In life there are very, very few people who gave a shit about you and how you do in life. At Microsoft, you're expected to drive yourself to excellence. The best people:

1) publicly admit mistakes and work out how to learn and grow from them
2) take the initiative
3) look for opportunities
4) don't blame others - the only person who can stop you failing is you

If you're happy to be a 'cog in a corporate machine' with no hopes then you do that. That's certainly not what its like to work here (if that's what was being alluded to)

There a three sayings my wife and I use to guide our lives:

1) carpe diem

2) Life's what you make it (title of an excellent song by Talk Talk)

3) There's no fate but what you make (a line from Terminator 2)

Sit still and life's going to pass you by.

Cheers,

Paul.

Originally posted by royalchicken
Each of Gates' statements likely describes a fact about the world, but taken together they present a point of view that is defeatist and unnecessarily single-minded.

Well put--and Mr. Gates is not really advocating any real meritocracy; rather, he is bringing up eleven very good points that when taken as a whole demonstrate the belief that the real goal of society is to enrich its members, and that material wealth should be the sole aim of people. I don't fault him for saying this, but I don't agree either.

David, send a game if you like.

Originally posted by royalchicken
[b]Well put--and Mr. Gates is not really advocating any real meritocracy; rather, he is bringing up eleven very good points that when taken as a whole demonstrate the belief that the real goal of society is to enrich its members, and that material wealth should be the sole aim of people. I don't fault him for saying this, but I don't agree either.
b]