# Bill Gates' speech to a high school class



## phantom1975 (Jan 15, 2005)

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 did not and will not learn in school. He talks about 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 - 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 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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## Legacy 12630 (Jan 15, 2005)

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/b/billgatesspeech.htm

http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/gatesadvice.html

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/liferule.htm

http://www.dr1.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-17972.html

etc.


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## Smitty (Jan 15, 2005)

So all due credit should go to Charles Sykes; thanks for pointing that out!

Regardless, the message is what's most important.

We've got quite a few children (adults & illegal immigrants as well) who could greatly benefit from that here.

Smitty


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## PaddyD (Jan 17, 2005)

"We've got quite a few children (adults & illegal immigrants as well) who could greatly benefit from that here."

Well, at least the legal immigrants seem well eductated.


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## Cbrine (Jan 18, 2005)

Ponsonby,
   You just had to go and spoil it.  Next your going to be telling me the Easter bunny isn't real, and that Santa is a just a fat guy in a red suit.


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## hummelc (Mar 26, 2005)

Message from "That Guy"


> Bill Gates is certainly one to talk about excellence......Three cheers for protecting some of the crappiest software ever behind your monopoly.



Well you are obviously still very young, otherwise you may have remembered the days before Bill Gates and MS, when there where so many different operating systems that you could not migrate any files from one PC manufacturer to another. In some rare cases you could get your files translated into another PC  operating language, but that resulted often in some file corruption.

Whatever you think of Bill Gates or MS, at least they unified the operating system, We now have a universal platform on which it is easy for other Application developers to build jut a couple of versions (MS, Mackintosh etc) that can be used universally and Globally in every office and household. You tried doing this in the late eighties and before.

So stop following the gutter press gossips like sheep and get real. MS is not perfect, but who is.


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## sommerpears (Jan 26, 2011)

Those points are so very true and they definitely made me laugh. 
If you enjoy those you should Youtube "Everybody's Free (Always Wear Sunscreen)". 
It's one of my favorites and definitely is inspiring. 



website hosting​


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## Scott Huish (Jan 26, 2011)

The easter bunny's not real ???????????????????????????


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## schielrn (Jan 27, 2011)

HOTPEPPER said:


> The easter bunny's not real ???????????????????????????


Don't believe everything you read on the internet.   He's real.


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## PA HS Teacher (Jan 27, 2011)

"If you enjoy those you should Youtube "Everybody's Free (Always Wear Sunscreen)". "

Anyone else notice that this thread predates youtube?


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## Scott Huish (Jan 27, 2011)

Well at least it doesn't predate Windows


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## snowblizz (Feb 1, 2011)

PA HS Teacher said:


> "If you enjoy those you should Youtube "Everybody's Free (Always Wear Sunscreen)". "
> 
> Anyone else notice that this thread predates youtube?


No...


Randomly threadomanced post I curse thee!


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## Gerald Higgins (Feb 9, 2011)

Just for fun, here's what Bill should have said...

Rule 1: Excel is not fair - get used to it !

Rule 2: The world won't care about your Excel skills. The world will expect you to accomplish something not at all related to Excel BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will not make 60,000 posts to Mr Excel a year right out of high school. You won't be a Mr Excel MVP until you're making posts from your carphone.

Rule 4: If you think Excel formulas are tough, wait till you meet VBA.

Rule 5: Flipping Excel spreadsheets is not beneath your dignity.
Your grandparents had a different word for flipping Excel spreadsheets - they called it flipping Symphony spreadsheets.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's Excel's fault, so whine about your mistakes on Mr Excel.

Rule 7: Before you were born, spreadsheets weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from being used for paying bills and tracking lottery numbers. So before you save the internet from the bugs in Excel, try de-bugging the code in your own VBA.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but Excel 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 Excel. 

Rule 9: Excel is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you learn how to use the =FIND() function. Do that on your own time. 

Rule 10: Mr Excel is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave their computers and go into coffee shops to meet real people.

Rule 11: Be nice to the nerds at Mr Excel. Chances are you'll end up being one.




Disclaimer . . . any similarity to actual people, companies, spreadsheet programmes . . . . blah blah blah


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## SuperFerret (Feb 9, 2011)

Gerald Higgins said:


> Just for fun, here's what Bill should have said...


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