I was just reading the latest edition of Stockman's Journal and article about the work ethic that our millennials of today carry with them. It dawned on me that what Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, had to say to a group of high school kids would make a wonderful present for today’s teenagers who are going to be leaving our public school system and venturing out into a world where I think many young people are in for a rude awaking.  Mr. Gates speech to a group of teenagers contained 11 rules.  They are as follows:

Rule 1:  Life is not fair, get used to it.

Rule 2: The world doesn'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 parent's 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 time.

Rule 10: Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to a job.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

I'LL add Rule 12: There are 2 kinds of people on this earth. There are those who always blame others or circumstance for their shortcomings and as long as they continue to do this, they are always at the mercy of others for their successes which translates to a life of disappointments. The opposite is the person who accepts responsibility for his or her mistakes leaving them in total control to fix the problem.

This is my gift to our youth. I think it's a pretty good starter map to follow till you begin to draw your own map for the future.  As for me I've enjoyed my life's journey.

See Ya,

Jack