Quote★★★★

Bill Gates spoke to a group of high school students that were approaching graduation. He had 11 points that he imparted which are classic. They are:

1. Life is not fair so get used to it.

2. The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

3. You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won’t be vice-president with a car phone, until you earn both.

4. You think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.

5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it an opportunity.

6. If you mess up, it’s not your parents fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

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 are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

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.

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.

10. Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to a job.

11. Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

The point

Bill Gates' 11 rules for high school graduates cover practical life wisdom: life is unfair, the world demands proof, hard work comes first, authority figures are tougher in reality, no one cares about your self-esteem, and other sobering truths about adult responsibility and meritocracy.

Scripture
Audience
YouthAdults
Tone
Practical · Cautionary
To tell aloud
about 2 min · 314 words

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