Good advice to school students as they prepare for the real world

Recently my father shared what was reported to be advice from Bill Gates when he addressed High School students - a little late for me you might say, but still relevant for my daughter.

I am sure that the reported association with Bill Gates will have done the promotion of this piece no hard at all, but i fear that a quick check of the internet - well i would, wouldn't I - reports this to be an urban legend with no basis in truth. Instead the text came from an op-ed piece in the San Diego Union-Tribune on September 19th, 1996, written by Charles J. Sykes.

That is no matter the advice is still good and as another academic year reaches an end I will do my bit to spread it further. I hope it resonates and at least someone will find it useful.


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 are. 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.



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