BILL GATES - MESSAGE OF LIFE

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From: Troy J


BILL GATES - MESSAGE OF LIFE

To anyone with kids, of any age, here's some advice Bill Gates recently dished out at a high school speech about 11 things they did not learn in school. He talked about how feel-good, politically correct teaching has created a full 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 40 thousand dollars 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. He/She doesn't have tenure.

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 are. 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.
 
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Reply: 1
From: J Parker


I like it Troy!
Have to agree partially with Bill there about children being cushioned from reality. Then again, you're only a child for such a short time, that I sometimes wish I was back there myself! (no bills, less responsibility, no cooking etc) Mind you, my teachers never protected me from lousy grades (My art teacher smiled sadistically when she told me I hadn't passed!)

I was working at age 14 (casually)at Woolies (along with three quarters of my classmates at the time!) and stayed there right through uni, paying my own way for textbooks, car costs, entertainment and clothes. I developed an appreciation of money and how far it could actually go. My parents did me an enormous favour by not buying for me, as I had to work out my priorities and thus decide did I really need this or that? Had mobile phones been rife then, I still don't think I would have got one. I couldn't have afforded it!!

I would not dare generalize here by saying all teens these days are spoilt, but I feel that some of them have more of a "I need it now" mentality than when I was a teenager (and yes it was a while ago. Sigh...)

Still, it never fails to amaze me how smart some of these kids are. I didn't think about buying my first IP until I was married and even then, I certainly didn't research it at all (and yes it was a dud- if only I'd kept it!). That's why it's inspiring to me to hear these stories of 17 and 18 yr olds saving up their cash for investments first. Good on them! Now if I can just persuade my daughter to put her money in the piggybank instead of spending it at the tuckshop...

Cheers, Jacque :)
 
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NOT BILL GATES - MESSAGE OF LIFE

Reply: 2
From: Sim' Hampel


Amen ! My sentiments exactly.

HOWEVER, this is actually not something that Bill Gates said (although it is widely reported as so).

In fact apparently this list is the work of Charles J. Sykes, author of the book "Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, Or Add".

As always, the Snopes "Urban Legends Reference Pages" clear up this little misunderstanding for us ;-)

http://www.snopes2.com/language/document/liferule.htm

sim.gif
 
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NOT BILL GATES - MESSAGE OF LIFE

Reply: 2.1
From: Troy J


Thanks Sim for clearing that up. Needless to say though, I still like the message!

Troy
 
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NOT BILL GATES - MESSAGE OF LIFE

Reply: 2.1.1
From: Sim' Hampel


Agree !

sim.gif
 
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NOT BILL GATES - MESSAGE OF LIFE

Reply: 2.1.1.1
From: Always Learning


When I was a kid, I listened to my elders; parents, parents friends, aunts, uncles...you know, "old people" those close to death: 35 or even older :)
<p>
They used to sit around all night drinking beer (hmmm) and talk endlessly about the moral decay of youngsters: worthless, lazy, want-it-now, irresponsible, dont want to go without, bla bla bla... point is maybe they were half right! Maybe that is what being a kid is all about, selfish and idealistic !!!
<p>
Moving forward 25 years, it's my turn now to accept responsibility for a family, and a strange thing has happened; I am at times thinking the same things as my parents were saying...kids of today...lazy, want-it-now bla bla bla.
<p>
Maybe kids haven't changed, but I have!
 
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