A Speech by Bill Gates – Some thoughts added!

Received this as a forward today along with the Warren Buffet rules that seem to be doing the rounds these days:

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! (Most important lesson that can be given to our kids)

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. (Sure, but the teenagers of today expect this & are more focused)

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. (Very True, but in the competitive world, you will not become one unless you have studied much more than high school)

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

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity. (Completely untrue to India; the number of youngsters embracing Retail with open arms, needs to be seen to be believed)

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.

Rule 6 – 11 may or may not apply to India. But Rule Nos 12 is applicable across the board, countries, continents, generation.

RULE 12 – Always make enough money before you spout such rules, to be taken seriously.

Anaggh Desai