This may be treading close to breaking the list rules, but I think there is some truth to this.

[Dawes, Stephen]

BILL GATES SPEECH TO MT. WHITNEY HIGH SCHOOL IN VISALIA, CALIFORNIA 
Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! 

To anyone with kids of any age, here's some advice. Bill Gates recently
gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they will not learn in
school. He spoke of 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 so 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 your were. So before
you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents 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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