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Bill Gates' tips for success

Wednesday, 2nd July 2008

According to Allison Pearson, Bill Gates has 11 'tips for success' which he recently gave to some high school pupils - tips which they would never learn in school. They look bang on to me:

RULE 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
RULE 2: The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

RULE 3: You will NOT make £30,000 a year right out of high school.

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: 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 and listening to you talk about how cool you are.

RULE 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT.

RULE 9: Life is not divided into terms. You don't get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you "find yourself". Do that in your own time.

RULE 10: TV is not real life. In real life, people 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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Cheesie

July 2nd, 2008 7:32am

Neat, but unsurprisingly an internet rumour that has been doing the rounds for years and years.

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

Water

July 2nd, 2008 8:45am

This is truly great "RULE 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one!"

TomTom

July 2nd, 2008 11:31am

Bill Gates tips for success.

a) Inherit $1 million from grandmother when turn 18

b) Drop out of Harvard Maths degree course

c) Meet Paul Allen

d) Spend $50,000 buying a BASIC program from some sap

e) Upgrade the program to suit IBM needs for IBM DOS

f) Let IBM build a monopoly position for your software while using open source hardware

Sally S

July 2nd, 2008 11:53am

Outcome = Become the richest man in the world.

Water

July 2nd, 2008 12:05pm

Thanks Edam, though rule 11 still makes me laugh.

Sally S

July 2nd, 2008 12:06pm

Well done cheese.

Sally S

July 2nd, 2008 12:08pm

Have to check out his book Business @ The Speed of Thought now.

flippingbird

July 2nd, 2008 12:19pm

Lotta rules, lotta lifes, lotta arrogance!

Brian

July 2nd, 2008 12:30pm

Probably apocryphal but the last one is particularly great. Some of the others are very condescending-has Mr Pollard ever done a shift on the burger vans? Hmm, thought not, that's for the little people who can't make a living reading/writing

Sally S

July 2nd, 2008 12:49pm

lotta laughs

jim aldridge

July 2nd, 2008 1:05pm

"Probably apocryphal but the last one is particularly great" though the burger flipping comment is a bit over the top.

Philip Wright

July 2nd, 2008 1:25pm

Ed Balls could do to take notice of Rule 8!

Stringham

July 2nd, 2008 1:48pm

Gosh - the laziness and incompetence of two journalists exposed through just the one post.

Water

July 2nd, 2008 4:28pm

Or this could be Pollard pulling your leg...

Smyrna Merchant

July 2nd, 2008 10:50pm

How come the default setting for blog comments seems so stuck - as shit to a blanket - on showy cynicism?

Rivka

July 9th, 2008 4:05pm

You do know this is an internet hoax, right? He never gave this speech, but should have.

Sunimal Alles

August 17th, 2008 10:10am

Everyone can become successful and excel in life, if they identified their natural talents (Thoughts, Drive/Will and Skills), Polished them, found the purpose of their lives, established a strategy and plan to attain the purpose, developed and maintained excellent personal and human relationships to market their talents or products/services stemming from their talents. The Natural talents are what gives everyone the POWER to breakthrough all obstacles and blockages as they are with and within a human and enables everyone to become creative and select the level of success themselves. If one does not like the process of one lifestyle, change, CHANGE and CHANGE until you strike the one you feel totally (100%) comfortable and the creativity flows naturally. www.tidycentre.com