Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The View from a Gates

Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! 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 to 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.

Welcome To Crustybeef~
Makes you think, doesn't it?
I am one that agrees with that first paragraph with the children of "today."
Thanks to my friend, Dnutz for the forward of this thoughtful email!

6 comments:

Brad said...

I was just thinking about you not 5 minutes ago(thinking:"When is that chick gonna post...") And up you poped in my google reader. Great minds and all...

I got to hear Bill speak (and shake his hand) when I worked at Starbucks. He comes of much funnier and less goofy then he does on TV. He was speaking on the Gates Foundation - if he sticks with his word and gives most of that money away I'll forgive him for his manipulative business practises.

XO to you sweets!

JLee said...

Hey, I'll take advice any day from a dude who's a bazillionaire! haha

Moohaa said...

All that is so true!! And with a generation of kids growing up feeling like they are owed everything, these are going to be some hard lessons for them to learn.

Love you Crusty sister!

Mary said...

This is a winner. Ditto Kelly Jene's comment. I'm printing this to keep. Thanks.

Portia said...

AMEN:)

Anonymous said...

I wiwsh this around when I graduated.....although I probably would've been too drunk to read it.