Things You Don't Learn In School

The name of Bill Gates is known throughout the world. Most people look at what he's accomplished and the fortune he's accumulated with fascination and, in many cases, jealousy, wondering how on earth one man could amass so much money. Well, in his book, Bill Gates shares a list of the 11 things not generally taught in school -- I think he is right on:

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 a large sum of money the 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 until you get a boss. He or she 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.

Good stuff! Here are a few other things that you don't learn in school:

You don't learn how to set and reach goals for a balanced life, which must start with a balanced goals program. Too bad this is not included at most educational institutions, because 10 years after graduation from college, over 80 percent of graduates are earning their living in a field unrelated to what they majored in college.

In school, you are not taught how to build winning relationships, either at home or in the workplace.

Some specialized schools may teach you how to make more money or how to climb the ladder of success faster, but in our public schools and colleges, you don't learn how to develop the qualities that will make you successful in each area of your life. Nor are you taught how to get up when you've been knocked down. This involves building the right attitudes and the right character base, which are necessary for long-term success.

In most cases, an individual is never taught how to raise positive kids in a negative world, or how to build a happy, lasting marriage.

Question: Why don't we include more real world education like Bill Gates wrote about and that which I've added? Think seriously about these things, and if you determine that you've missed out on a lot of learning, perhaps you should be attending seminars and reading some of the self-help books that the "eggheads" are constantly deriding. Give it a thought. Take some action along these lines, and I'll SEE YOU OVER THE TOP!

....Zig Ziglar @ http://zigziglar.com