Bill Gates' Eleven Rules for HS Grads

My friend, Susan, sent me this. I think high school grads should be given an exam on it. It is so true.

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.

Idealism is good. Believing that you're owed something for nothing is not good. I'm afraid we're setting up people to really feel that way with all the loopholes in welfare and tax breaks for having more children than can already be afforded. I have a problem with people who expect to get a job because of their gender or race. What ever happened to the notion that the one who is best qualified gets the job? Why should we expect to be paid for having children? or for not having a job?

I also have a problem with criminals blaming their misdeeds on their poor upbringing. If they know it was poor, why didn't they make an effort to behave the opposite? It isn't the parents' fault. Placing the blame on someone or something other than the culprit is too acceptable these days. I say place the blame where it lays: on the one committing the crime. We are given choices. We need to take the consequences for the ones we choose.

Perhaps Mr. Gates' Eleven Rules should be inscribed on the backs of the high school diplomas this May!