Bill Gates speech: 11 rules your kids did not and will not learn in school
I like the rules Bill Gates came up with up. Very practical. I like all of them except maybe number 11, hehe..nerds are cool, but working for one??? My first job was a waiter, then a dishwasher in New Jersey. When I got to Los Angeles I worked in McDonald’s making apple pies and fries and eventually ‘promoted’ to drive thru because I was fast and quick my manager said. I was glad to get a job to support myself. It was not easy. But I knew I would not stay there because I was going to work hard I said to myself. It’s either work hard, sell drugs or be a male prostitute for a young sixteen year old boy like me in Los Angeles. I was never going to do any of that illegal stuff and said I am going to get a job and work and I did. I supported myself since I left home at sixteen. It was hard, but my teachers taught me to do nothing illegal. I never did drugs or drink alcohol. I never ever even tried drugs in L.A. nevermind selling. I lived with my teacher Geshe-la at that time and he grounded me so much.
Anyway, kids and parents and everyone should read up on these rules as they are very realistic if you want to get anywhere in your life.
Tsem Rinpoche
Bill Gates speech: 11 rules your kids did not and will not learn in school
by Tea Talk and Gossip on Sunday, September 12, 2010 at 10:19pm
Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!
Rule 2: The world doesn’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 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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I like Rule #6… we must realise our own faults and mistakes and improve ourselves and grow up. Thank you Rinpoche and blog team for article by Bill Gates.😎
Good rules from a worldly wise man.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1338925/Still-growing-40-throwing-tantrums-brain-learning-adult.html
this is not from bill gates, but actually an excerpt from the book “Dumbing Down our Kids” (1996) by educator Charles Sykes
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_bill_gates_speech.htm
Dear Rinpoche, Bill Gates is super right. Now days of kids just ask whatever they want then the parents will just give it to them. This kind of habit wasted their precious time when they can do a lot of sport that will make them become healthier.
These rules are all so true and practical! I especially like the following few:
Rule 1 : Life is not fair – get used to it!
– What is fair and what’s not fair? However, when we do not grumble about how unfair life is to us, we begin to take responsibility of ourselves on our lives instead on blaming others.
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 delousing the closet in your own room.
– Our parents are not to be blame for who we are. They have been trying what they know best to bring us up from their upbringing and the culture that they have been through. Instead, this makes us more appreciative of who they are and learn from them.
Thanks Rinpoche for sharing the rules.
This is definitely worth another look and words of wisdom never go out of date. Bill Gates knows what he is talking about. You don’t simple become a “bill gates” by accident and without having learned a few valuable lessons. To have done what Bill Gates has achieved, one must have faced a lot of ups and downs and learned from it.
My personal favorite is this one: # Rule 2: The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
To me it is about getting real with the fact that life doesn’t treat us like we have become accustomed to by our loving parents and schools/colleges. The real world won’t be bothered about us unless we are useful. I have heard people accuse the world of not being a caring one. Why would the world care about our problem when it is struggling with its own?
Bill Gates teaches the younger generation a good lesson. Nowadays most of the younger generations only love to have fun, cannot take any punishments or sufferings. It’s not good for them. I believe it’s good to make mistakes in teenagers. It’s not a problems making mistakes. The most important thing is that the kids CAN LEARN from those mistakes so that they won’t to make the same mistakes again.
I never thought a nerd could be so cool… He’s soo bitchy, it must be tough to be his kid! You dad has enough money the world over but he ain’t gona give you a penny of it until you earn it!
Great list of rules to instill some ethics, integrity.
Stop your whining, the world won’t care about your self esteem until you feel good about yourself! LOL
I, personally, don’t think much of Bill Gates doling out practical virtues in direct response to the societal values that have been instilled in our youth in an absence of family (and associated structure/guidance/support, you know, the stuff that generally comes along with it however faulted). The action of Mr. Gates values do more to promote economic slavery and exploitation worldwide than encourage improvement among humanity. We honor as a people the virtue of greed in it’s many forms, and no one truely personifies this like Bill Gates, (even Donald Trump, who is much more of a blowhard/clown). Like a milkshake that’s 95% strawberries and icecream and 5% fresh cow manure, it still stinks and not many people would actually consume it. Those that did would surely be quick to point out how it was much better than if it had been, say, 25% manure. BTW, ‘Arbeit macht frei’ might just be a suitable summary of his philosophy. Belly up, kids!
These are my views on each and everyone of these rules.
1.Life is truly unfair that is how samsara is. Samsara is just a cycle that repeats suffering over and over again.
2. We should not even have self esteem in the first place. We should be doing everything well. We should not care on whatever people think of us.
3.Things always should be in steps just like how I should think of my life. I should not think that I will get every single thing well in my life without working to earn it.
4. School prepares you for how the rest of the world is going to be so it is best to just deal with it.
5. This rule shows us that we need to take every single opportunity we get.
6. This rule really relates to me as I usually blame others when it comes to failure and suffering. Therefore I should stop blaming others when I am the creator of the cause.
7. I do not really relate to this rule as I do not notice my parent as boring.
8. When we fail, we do not have any chance to succeed so we need to take charge and try not to fail.
9. We are not separated into castes. We must do everything on our own without being pushed and proded to do it.
10. Television is just a mirror of how people want life to be and it is just filled with lies.
11. This rule is definitely one rule that does not apply to life at all.
There is a difference in the rules that was recommended by Bill Gates. Which is Bill Gates taught by what he would think in business or corporate world. Rinpoche teaches from a Spiritual point called Dharma. If I can turn the clock backwards and have young children. I would send them to a Dharma school. Rinpoche’s teaching is more closer to any culture which can be applied to any family. He uses compassion and wisdom to be applied. Rinpoche method discourages one from going into vice and bring growing children up children to be virtuous and to apply it to their life. I believe religious rules should be taught to children.
Dearest Rinpoche,
I like this very much actually. It is so apt and very true. I too like all of the above accept for No.11. Being a boss myself I hope I am not perceived as a geek (nothing wrong with being a geek!) as I know I am fair and somewhat cool (hahaha. Maybe thats my ego talking!).
In any case, all of the pointers above are very relevant and I have personally been through ALL the rules and then some and I can only agree with what Bill Gates has pointed out. However, I would like to make some comments of my own with regards to the above:
1. Life I find is actually fair and it seems unfair because we look at it through eyes of jealousy, covetousness, hatred and envy which makes us desire that which is not ours which increases our misery. Disparity is the cause for unfairness hence if there is no perception of disparity perhaps life would be fair at least within ourselves?
2. We should not rely on others for our establishing our own worth but they are important mirrors to reflect upon to see if we are right in our own perceptions of ourselves.
3. Opportunities do come but we need to realize it and take action… it does not merely fall on our laps so to speak!
4. School only teaches us what to expect and even then compared to the real world it pales in comparison… what more teachers versus bosses!
5. Once again perception is always key. No honest and decent job done to earn our keep is demeaning. I too worked in Wendy’s for a time because I did not want to rely on my parents to keep paying for me. I wanted independance or at least a sense of my own worth and not having to “bother” someone else. I remember wanting so bad to flip the burgers as I was on cleaning duty most of the time… hehehe! Perceptions once again!!!
6. No one is to blame but ourselves. Personally, what I went through with my parents I take it as a great lesson. A lesson which I would not change for the world because what I learnt from them (through their mistakes and misforgivings) has made me a better and stronger person and I do not want to lose that. Hence the negativity in my life I rejoice as there were positive lessons!
7. This is so true as I am coming to learn more and more as I get older. My mother was a sixties child and imagine that period! I remember as a child she had almost a different hairstlye every week and I used to be completely facinated with her wigs (sorry mum, the secret is out! hehehe). However if you met her today she is like any other 60+ lady who seems subdued and “boring”. But I know she is not.
8. School merely teaches you to be the best YOU you can be. They sure dont tell you what you are supposed to do with the YOU.. hehehe
9. Life is but one continuous thread which makes up the cloth of existence!
10. Why do people in television movies, dramas etc seem to never use the toilet to defecate or urinate (this maybe sometimes)… enough said right? Hehehe
11. This merely demonstrates the law of cause and effect in that what comes around goes around!
Well… thats my two cents worth. In a contemplative mood today…
Much love… Andrew
Very true, Rinpochela. Many parents, educators and the country’s leaders themselves have to read these rules because they themselves have no DIRECTION and proper VALUES in life anymore. Consequently, the younger generation simply do not have many good ROLE MODELS to emulate; so we have a degenerated society.
Be careful to distinguish between someone’s words and actions. Bill Gates is doing wonderful work with his foundation spreading health and education around the world. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx On the other hand, his auspicious conditions for success with Microsoft Corp, certainly came from his hard work, but also his fertile background and clear focus to be the only Operating System available leading Microsoft to breaking AntiTrust laws through monopolization and tying goods. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates I think these 11 rules are part of the “tough love” philosophy which has been shown to be ineffective in schools and the work place. “The pivotal role of teachers in establishing positive, supportive, inclusive learning environments based on the implementation of empirically-supported teaching strategies (IDEA, 1997, 2004: NCLB, 2002) is uncontestable”.Source:Education & Treatment of Children, Vol 32(4), Nov, 2009. Here is a video on Motivation in the workplace suggests these 11 rules are outdated.
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html
Within these 11 rules, the view of the world really only focuses on the 1st noble truth of suffering which is important, but there is also the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path to the cessation of suffering. Wisdom and compassion are personal moment to moment reflections of our inner goodness within the context of our transitory lives. These 11 rules seem to be afraid of this,our true nature.
wow, wakes me up alittle… but i’m supposed to be an adult!!!! oops
Rule 1 a) If you still want to believe that life is fair… you are RIGHT.
Rule 1 b) but now you got to find out WHY.
These are some incredibly blunt – yet very practical – pointers from Bill Gates, and hopefully a lot of young people can benefit from reading them – of course, adults aren’t perfect themselves 🙂
From my brief experience of teaching in high school, I came across many teenagers who had fantastic dreams, but they seemed to lack the direction or motivation to put any effort into achieving their dreams.
Sometimes, young folks can get a bad press, but articles like this one are wonderful, as it respectfully offers young people sound advice without the harsh criticism. A lot of us will remember how difficult it seemed to be, living life as teenager; as Quentin Crisp put it:
“The young always have the same problem – how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another.”
This is another fantastic article – thank you for sharing, dear Rinpoche. I have shared it around my friends and also sent it to my 16-year old nephew…I wonder if he’ll still be talking to me after he reads it!
Kindest regards,
Sandy