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Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they have not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of children 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 cleaning 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.
If you can read this - Thank a teacher!

It looks viable.

This coming from the richest man of the world, I would've expected something with more quality. He makes it sound as if life is totally farked up, this is is really meant for burger-flipping kids whose life is gonna be farked up.

Yeah it's kind of ... non-professional somehow . Almost immature.

It's brutal, but its to the point, and its the truth. To say anything else would mislead people and be just stupid.

well life is kinda... ..... up. (unfortunately)

Hmm my school teaches these facts...hmm and its funded by the bill gates foundation, conspiracy perhaps

um you can learn all of these lessons if you go to any good college. not all of us are going to make a compter os that changes the world.

I heard this speech a long time ago (considering I live about 45 minutes away from Bill Gates, I hear these speeches). And this is all completely true...

So if u were the richest man on the planet, someone everyone looks up to, you'd tell everyone how life sucks?

What's the point of candy coating it?
I'm pretty sure this is the only thing I've seen/heard from one of the only people I hate that actually makes sense.

I'm not saying he should have candy coated it, I'm saying, if you were the richest man on the world, an idol, would that be what you wanted to tell everyone? Sure as hell wouldn't be my message.

It's not the first thing he has told the public so I don't get your point.
He just wanted to shed some reality on HS kids that think they're all that and that life is grand.

I remember this "wisdom" from Bill Gates. I also remember writing a long ass rant for the teacher that showed us this, talking about how Gates would know nothing of the real world. He built a computer, and made an OS, and has been successful ever since.

I seriously doubt Bill Gates has ever had to live off mac & cheese for a week.

lol. You guys are funny. Arguing over what another man should and shouldn't say.

This is what he feels reality is. If you don't agree, just ignore it. Why argue over it? He's only a man.

If you want to provide your own reality and views on life, then please do. And honestly, i don't see what living conditions and occupation have to do with someone's outlook on life being valid or not.

Bake?
O.O

Eh, I coulda told you this.

But I didnt.

Thing is, Bill Gates isn't someone who should be talking about flipping burgers being an opportunity. The dude made a fortune on a program for computers, not working his way through a corporation, or career.

And it wasn't even his to begin with. Funny that.

You rang?

I wish someone had sat beside me through high school yelling rules 2 and 3 in my ear all day long. I really, really do.

Yes, because to give hundreds of people, of which only MAYBE a handful will make it well, some hope that they can make it, is worse than just telling them "you probably wont make it, but remember these things and it'll be better for you." If you don't like brutalness, then the world is not for you.

Yea, because programming and building an international billion dollar industry isn't a career. I do that shit on the weekends.

lol. Think they flip burgers at Microsoft? My point is, people paid out the ass for something he basically made in his garage. Which led to his billion dollar industry. I seriously doubt after striking deals with IBM that Gates ever needed to work at McDonald's hoping for opportunities. And even if he thought he did, his rich ass parents probably could've footed the bills for awhile.

That's pretty solid, basic advice that some people will benefit by being reminded of.
Cool thread.

I like it alot. well put billy bob

don't you people have parents who tell you this stuff on a daily basis ...i feel like im the only one who didn't read that nodding his/her as if i never realized all that stuff and im only 18 -_- its mostly common sense what he should've done was give them information they can use instead of pointing out facts of life that if you've worked a day in yoru life you'd know

Just because YOU actually have to do somthing to figure it out doesn't mean he does. He can see what's happening in the world, like most people except you I guess, and learn from that. Did you have to do everything wrong to learn it was wrong even though everyone told you it was wrong?

Guess what, shooting yourself in the foot will hurt...now go do it as you can't learn from other people



Yes but most teenagers tend to not listen to their parents so a rolemodel saying it IS better ^.^

I don't mean to be rude, Gates is a successful man, but I can't honestly take serious advice from him about hardships and struggles in life...

I mean for ffs we are talking about a man who invented a computer operating system that has made him the richest person in the world!
How the hell can he claim to know anything about hardship??

Also b4 any1 says it Gates went to Harvard before he set up Microsoft so he has never exactly been poor

Right, Gates knows nothing about opportunity and hard work.

/sarcasm

Agreed.