Bill Gates’ 10 advices to young people

Before retiring in July 2008, Bill Gates gave the following advices to high school students. Who knows you will become a second Bill Gates after learning from these valuable advices? 


1. “Life is not fair - get used to it.” 
-> The world is never fair. You know this? You can never change the whole world. Injustice still exists in the current society, so you should try to adapt. 

2. “The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.” 
-> Your extreme self-esteem may make your job inconvenient. Don't attach too much significance on your self-esteem as people care about your achievements rather than it. 

3. “You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with car phone, until you earn both.” 
-> Normally you can't be rich if you have just finished high school. However to become an executive, you need to obtain both: a high school certificate and the money. 

4. “If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.” 
-> Don’t complain that your boss is tough. When you are at school, your teachers always stand by you whenever you meet problems. However if you have thought that all your problems really come from the hard requirements of your teachers, you shouldn't look for a job. Simply if there aren't strict demands from your company, you will do nothing and quickly become unemployed. Then nobody will give you a hand. 

5. “If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.” 
-> Don't blame your failure on your destiny. All you need now is to stay calm and start from scratch. 

6. “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.” 
-> You should show your gratefulness to your parents for spending most of their lives for your living and growth. All the “outdated” of your parents today is the price they have to pay for your growth. 

7. “Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life may 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.” 
-> Keep in mind that you can always become a leader, so that you will have more motivation to strive for your career. 

8. “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.” 
-> Don’t always wait for holidays or you will be left behind your colleagues. That backwardness means elimination and unemployment. 

9. “Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.” 
-> Everybody likes watching TV, but you shouldn't watch it too much. As that actually isn't your life and your thinking will be influenced. You yourself have to determine your own life. 

10. “Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.” 
-> You should be nice to everyone. Life has happenings you could never expect. Be open to your boss, don’t say bad things behind his back as it will bring you nowhere. 

Comments ():

Wise and true words of a man that knows what he's talking about.

Reply | Replies (0) added 

I set it my son's computer desktop. It will develop my son's thinking.

Reply | Replies (0) added 

This is a cute list. My favorite is #6 about boring parents, but before this discussion advances too much further, there's one point of grammar that seems inadvisable especially for the ostensibly educational website where this was found:

Young (or even not so young) people might find this discussion and be unaware of an interesting error in word usage here. The word, "advice" is one of those exceptions to the general rules of English pluralization where there really is no plural of the word, advice.

Many bits of advice are still, advice (with no "s"), not "advices". For this example it should read, "...Bill Gates gave the following advice..." (no matter how many pieces of advice he gave). This is even more interesting because a very similar word, "vise", follows the standard rule and can be pluralized by adding an "s". It's hard to imagine how anyone learns English as a second language.

You can find more discussion of this at: [http://www.englishforums.com/English/AdviceAdvices/jqgw/post.htm|leo://plh/http%3A*3*3www%2Eenglishforums%2Ecom*3English*3AdviceAdvices*3jqgw*3post%2Ehtm/M85q?_t=tracking_disc]

And if you search exhaustively enough you'll probably find some dubious support for the use of the non-word, advices. As for me, I don't think so.

Reply | Replies (1) added 

Dear Dalexander, thank you for valuable remark regarding the plural form of 'advice'. I should admit, I didn't know about this rule.
Elena, as author of this post, can you please put the 'advices' to 'advice' in the first sentence.

Reply | Replies (0) added 

Valuable Lessons. Thanks for this posting!

Reply | Replies (0) added 

Amazing...thnx alot for sharing dat piece of his experience...hope all of us take it seriously nd achieve deir goals..jst lyk him!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply | Replies (0) added 

It is great as it is extracted from real life.

Reply | Replies (0) added 

Simply great

Reply | Replies (0) added 

Perfect ! therez always scope for a new start :) ...Good luck to me !!!!!!!!!!!

Reply | Replies (0) added 

Very true, this is all what experience taught whole of the life. Read, think & act , everyone will find a new Bill Gate in himself.

Reply | Replies (0) added 

very valuable points and ..practical

Reply | Replies (0) added 

great advice not sure how nice we should be to people who are very mean to he extent of spoiling your health and life...Any thought?

Reply | Replies (0) added 

This is an e-rumor not from Bill Gates but from the book "Dumbing Down our Kids" by educator Charles Sykes. It is directed at high school and college grads and Sykes original list is a bit longer.

Reply | Replies (0) added 

Regardless of where ever they are taken from, I extremely loved #1 & 2 though I'd been a revolutionary individual who wants to stamp out little deeds of injustice that usually are part of daily life. So should I start curbing that revolutionary person inside me? Ahaaan that's a tough one, I guess! :(

Reply | Replies (0) added 

Amazing! How great person and his tips are great!

Reply | Replies (0) added