Children must work and make their way in life themselves
October 28 is the birthday of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time, Bill Gates. During his life, this man not only managed to earn a multimillion-dollar fortune, but also forever went down in history as a true innovator and the wisest businessman.
Bill Gates has three children. In their upbringing, the richest person on the planet is guided by strict rules: children must work and make their way in life themselves.
Gates intends to spend his multibillion-dollar fortune on charity, while for his children – daughters Jennifer, Phoebe and son Rory – he decided to leave only 0.2% of it and not a cent more.
In order not to grow up amorphous and inactive, teenagers should have an idea of real life, Bill Gates is convinced. He outlined his thoughts on this in 11 commandments addressed to modern youth. He said all this in one of the schools where he was invited to make a speech.
1. Life is unfair. Just accept it as a fact.
2. The world is not perfect. It doesn’t care about your ambitions, aspirations and ego. Society needs real success right now, so it can make you doubt your own success in half a step to victory. Don’t give up.
3. Don’t expect too much from life. It is unlikely that someone will assign you a salary of $60 thousand a year immediately after graduation. You can become a vice president of a company, get a personal limousine and a chauffeur only when you really deserve it.
4. Difficulties are ahead. If it seems to you that your teacher is strict and demanding, wait to meet your boss. Unlike a teacher, a boss’s career will depend on how you handle your assignments.
5. Any job is worthy. Frying burgers at McDonald’s is not beneath your dignity. Your great-grandfathers would have called any – even such job – an “opportunity.”
6. Learn to cope with failures. If you get into a puddle, it’s not your parents’ fault – don’t whine and learn from mistakes.
7. Know how to be grateful. Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they seem to you now. They became like this, earning money for your carefree childhood, studying, washing your clothes and listening to speeches about how cool you are. Therefore, before you start saving the world, clean out the toilet in your own room.
8. There will always be losers and winners in life. When people feel sorry for you at school and don’t give you bad grades, it has nothing to do with real life.
9. Be realistic. Life is not divided into semesters. You will not have summer holidays and there will be few employers who are interested in you “finding yourself”. Search at your own expense!
10. Don’t believe the TV. Cinema is not your life. In life, most of the time you will have to work, and not spend time in a coffee shop drinking a cup of coffee.
11. Be friends with “nerds”. Most likely, one of them will someday become your boss.
