'11 rules of life' by Charles J. Sykes.

The following '11 rules of life' are sometimes attributed to an alleged speech given by Bill Gates to high school students. However, they are actually from the book 'Dumbing Down Our Kids' by Charles J. Sykes.

'11 Rules of Life' by Charles J. Sykes

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 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president or have a company car. You may even have to wear a uniform that doesn’t have a designer label.

Rule 4:

If  you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. When you screw up, your boss isn't going to ask you how you feel about it.

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 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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Dumbing Down Our Kids was published back in 1995, but when you look at modern education with its participation trophies, its watered down standards, and its erosion of personal responsibility, there's a strong case for saying the '11 rules of life' listed above are more relevant now than ever.

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You can buy 'Dumbing Down Our Kids' from Amazon as a paperback or hard cover at the link below:
Dumbing Down Our Kids by Charles J. Sykes