11 rules for kids

Dave Schultz ^ | unknown | Bill Gates

[Cup of Joe]

I received the below 11 rules from two different people. One claimed that the it comes from Bill Gates' book Business @ The Speed of Thought, while the other claimed it came from Charles Sykes’ book Dumbing Down Our Kids

[Cup of Joe]

I received the below 11 rules from two different people. One claimed that the it comes from Bill Gates' book Business @ The Speed of Thought, while the other claimed it came from Charles Sykes’ book Dumbing Down Our Kids. I have not personally read either of the books so I can’t tell you for sure where it originated — but the rules do make a lot of sense and I congratulate whomever is the true author of them.

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 40 thousand dollars 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. He doesn't have tenure.

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 parents' 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; 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.

[Keith in Iowa]

It didn't come from Gates...

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

This list is the work of Charles J. Sykes, author of the book Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, Or Add. (The list has appeared in newspapers, although not necessarily in this book.) Many versions of this list omit the last three rules:


Rule No. 12: Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you're out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That's what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for "expressing yourself" with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.

Rule No. 13: You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven't seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.

Rule No. 14: Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school's a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you'll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now. You're welcome.

Advice columnist Ann Landers has printed the first ten items (uncredited) several times, and the list has been used by radio commentator Paul Harvey. The prize for misattribution, however, has to go to The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, which printed the list twice in three weeks in mid-2000, the first time crediting it to "Duluth state Rep. Brooks Coleman of Duluth," and the second time to Bill Gates.

[B Knotts]

I'm pretty sure it was written by Ted Nugent.

[Phantom Lord]

Its by George Carlin. And I looked damn cool with my purple hair and body piercings!

[brewcrew]

Charlie is a conservative talk radio host here in my hometown. He can be heard (after he gets back from vacation on 01/02) at:

http://www.620wtmj.com/620listenlive/index-new-alt.asp

He's on from 08:30 - 12:00 noon Central time, M-F, and you will have to get the SurferNetwork software to hear his show on the internet.

[TankerKC]

You are all wrong. Al Gore wrote these rules and posted them to his internet.

[Consort]

Rule No. 15: These are the Good Old Days.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I can tell it's by Sykes just by reading it. I can hear his voice expounding these common sense rules because they are written just the way he talks! He's a great listen most mornings.

[yankeedame]

Rule No. 15: These are the Good Old Days

============

Rule 16: Growing up is the best revenge.

Rule 17: Don't make fun of that nerdy kid. You may end up working for him.

[CougarGA7]

Rule 18 - Life is a Learning Curve and you are always on the wrong end of it.

[Jean S]

It from Charlie Sykes:

FOURTEEN RULES KIDS WON’T LEARN IN SCHOOL

[DainBramage]

Get tough or die... and if you don't like it, tell it to your therapist, I don't care.

[IYAS9YAS]

We had a poster in our office with John Wayne in full gunslinger regalia on it. The quote (not sure if it was really him) was "Life's tough...it's tougher if you're stupid."

[ricpic]

No room for dreamers in these rules. Where would the world be without dreamers. Think about it, all you hard headed tough guys.

[Consort]

No room for dreamers in these rules. Where would the world be without dreamers. Think about it, all you hard headed tough guys.

There is always plenty of room for dreamers of all ages. It's the Castles in the Sky that have to go as one matures.