(It has been brought to my attention that this is actually from “Dumbing Down our Kids” by educator Charles Sykes not Bill Gates. Someone posted something on the web and this got viral, but Bill Gates did say these things, so still let’s not forget. – 4/15/2013)
Some advice from one of the most successful man the world has ever seen, Bill Gates. His 11 rules of life that he gave to a high school started circulating the web in the year 2000, it has been over a decade and I think it is time to refresh our minds. Although I may not be in high school anymore, these rules are still golden in college. This is the cold hard truth, and he gives it to us straight.
1. Life is not fair – get used to it.
Sometimes even though you work long, hard, and relentlessly, you will not get the results you want. You may not get that A, you may not get that interview, you may not get that internship, you may not get that position. So what? Life isn’t fair. There are only two things you can do. Keep working. Or work harder.
2. The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
We are still in college, and unless you are paying for your own tuition AND taking care of whoever raised you, you haven’t done anything yet. You can feel good about yourself, you can be proud of what you have done, but don’t be fooled, this is just the beginning. Your biggest accomplishments have yet to come.
3. You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school college. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
We are in college now, this isn’t all that unfeasible. However don’t forget the entire rule, you have to earn it.
4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
It goes like this. Teachers care about you, they want you to get good grades. It doesn’t matter if it has something to do with their salary or if they just genuinely care, they want you to succeed. College professors don’t give a sh*t about you unless you learn to give a sh*t. It is a give and take relationship. If you aren’t willing to put in the work, goodbye see you never I have 300 other students who are willing to put in the work. But if you do put in the work, your professor will push you, and push you hard to make you better, all that for preparing you for after. Now I’m still at this stage but from what I have gathered the future is like this. Your boss does not care, you either put in the work or you’re fired.
5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
College is one HUGE LEARNING EXPERIENCE. That reaction paper you have to write twice a week? It is not bullsh*t, do it, and learn from it.
6. If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault; so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
At one point in college you WILL mess up. It’s done, its in the past, learn and move on. It may be hard in the moment, but you have to move on.
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.
I see this as two messages for us. 1, clean up after yourself, if messiness and uncleanliness becomes a habit, it becomes a disease. 2, enjoy college now cause you will be be a parent and have to deal with your smart alec kid sooner or later.
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.
You get mistakes, you get make up exams, you get extra credit, you get leeway. This is BACKUP, don’t rely on them. Why start a class thinking you’re going to need these things anyway?
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.
We are young adults now. Although life is still split into semesters, life is not that far off. When your summer/winter or whatever break comes yes you may relax a little. However you better still be keeping up, read some books take some extra courses, this is NOT the time to be slacking off. Also, no matter how busy you are you will have time to find yourself in college, so do it. Explore, experience, whatever, but do it now.
10. Television and video games are NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
This is a lie, Gates must have been mistaken. Just kidding.
11. Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.
Yea we get that now, when the curve is a c+ and glasses got a 94%, you should feel bad that you called him glasses. But in general, ,be nice to people, a**holes don’t live happy lives. And there are people out there, amazing people who can be both a nerd and have fun, and guess what? You can be.that.person.
These 11 rules Bill Gates lived by should be hardwired into everybody’s brain. And if you follow these 11 rules and things STILL don’t pan out, send me an email and I’ll go to Bill Gates personally and tell him to revise his rules
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