BILL GATES…..THE WAY IT IS

Woke to the big band! Howling wind, thundering sky and monsoon rain! Interestingly, from the south. Very unusual. Occurs only a few times a year. Just happened two times in one week.

My blog talk radio show tonight. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Nine o’clock. I am kicking ass! www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

I am 78. I do not think I am old. I do not feel old. But, obviously I am. The number of years on earth make me feel I have lived through a significant portion of history. I have, as has everyone in my age bracket.

I was born six years before World War II. My parents were poor. I was born on whatever the welfare program was at the time was.  My parents tried to give me everything. They wanted a better life for me. They instilled the work ethic in me. Work hard and succeed. Plus, you MUST get an education.

The generation following mine were the baby boomers. We of my generation screwed up in raising them. We wanted everything for them. Gave them everything. I for one did not want my children to “suffer” as I did in working several jobs in high school, college and law school, in having to pay for most of my education, in not having a car till I graduated from law school and could afford one on my own, etc.

Ergo, I and most of my generation gave our children the world. So much more so than our parents had given us. The baby boomers turned out not such an admirable group. They were the age of entitlement. They wanted everything. They were entitled to everything. They did not want to work for anything. Along the way, most forgot their aging parents.

Now is the time of the children of the baby boomers. They are more world wise than their parents. They believe the world owes them everything. Because they are. Because they exist. For no other reason.

Bill Gates recently gave a talk to a group of high school students. He set forth eleven rules they did not and would not learn in school. His remarks stated that today’s kids were feel good, politically correctly imbued and that such had created a generation of teens with no concept of reality. He said such set the kids up for failure in today’s world.

June Hudson of Key West, Delaware and Jersey Shore fame sent me a copy of Gates’ 11 rules. I set them forth intact and unedited for your reading. The rules say it all.

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 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 thought you were. 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 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 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.

Enjoy your day!