Self-esteem

[deeder]

"The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world expects you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself."

This is from a list of 11 rules to live by that was distributed a while ago (a couple years ago maybe?) as "Bill Gates rules". I'm pretty sure it was proved that this never came from Bill Gates... Here's a link to the 11 rules.

Discuss

[Bupp]

Seems pretty legit. I think alot of people in my generation act like things should be handed to them and that they are "entitled" to having things.

[el_Mariachi]

Seems fine with me. I agree there are a lot of kids who don't get it yet, but at the same time I kinda half-remember an article I read a while back about how Americans are working more hours than ever before, or more hours than most other countries, or something like that, and I think people go off the deep end a little bit sometimes with the old, "Kids these days..." refrain.

I'm in my mid-20s, out of school, and working (a lot of hours) in a career job so it's not like I'm sticking for the little ****s who graffitti'd my retaining wall a couple weeks ago, grrrrr. Just saying that overall I think we (Americans) still work pretty hard.

[Joe Black]

sme good common sense rules... I love stuff like this.. Some many people winge about their life, but won't take responsibility for making it better. Only one person can do it and it takes a certain mindset and determination to do it and if you are reading these rules thinking that he is not saying anything you don't know, you probably have it

[killxswitch]

People in my generation definitely expect things to be handed to them more than previous generations. But why is that? Because everyone got a trophy for participating, and everyone got a Valentine in 2nd grade so no one would feel bad, and parents started putting stuffed animals in time-out rather than spanking a kid's ass when he deserved it. So while I'm disgusted by many in my generation, and especially those in the one coming up behind mine, I'm more disgusted by the so-called authority structure that brought them up this way.

[Sensei]

Success breeds success. Failure breeds failure. Self-efficacy (task-specific competence/confidence) is everything IMO. I actually talk about this in one of my blogs (sorry to pawn it here but I think it's relevant): http://squatrx.blogspot.com/2007/12/...plessness.html

[BG5150]

It would have been better if someone had proofread the list before they posted it.

[Keith]

It would have been better if someone had proofread the list before they posted it.

I had a hard time reading it because of this.

[BilltheButcher]

Everyone is an idealist when they are in HS and college. You got no money, no responsibility, and you got these teachers and professors who live in fantasy land brain washing you with socialist beliefs.

But once you get out there in the real world, life gives you a swift kick in the nuts and makes you a realist real fast. Nothing like working yourself to death and watching the gov't reaching into your pocket every month taking 60% of what you make to give to all those "hand out" people that you wanted to help out so much when you were in HS and college.

[Nik00117]

Only point I disagree with is 3, it implies to 99% of the poeple but I figure many could do it. Go into IT and hitting 40 grand is a reachable goal straight outta HS. doesn't happen a lot but it happens.

[nejar462]

A lot of kid bashing here.

I knew I was a libertarian when I was in high school. I didn't even know what libertarian meant ironically.

I asked my sister, who is a socialist, why there aren't any people who think they government should just do as little as possible because thats what I believed (I had never heard of the libertarian movement).

She told me that I was a libertarian. I looked into it and I fell in love.

Also, kids in America do work more than their parents did, they test higher, and they acclimate to new technology faster. Additionally, they compete on a global market with an influx of well educated, hard working immigrants.

I have never seen any studies or trends which make me believe our generation is spoiled, whiney, or less productive.

[HahnB]

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

As far as I'm concerned life is pretty fair, unless you're involved in some sort of freak accident. You work hard, it will pay off. Some get lucky, that's always going to happen.

2. The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world expects you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel about yourself.

This makes no sense.

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.

I know 5 ppl off the top of my head that make more than that out of high school. It's not common, but very possible. Car phone?

4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.

If I absolutely hated my Boss I would just quit my job and find another.

5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping, they called it opportunity.

Flipping burgers is not an opportunity, and my grandparents were 30 years old when the first Mcdonalds was opened. The guy who wrote this is apparently a genius, and it must have been written for children of the future. That or he's just really stupid.

6. If you mess up, ifs not your parent’s fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Parenting is a direct cause of how children turn out.

7. Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way 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 parent’s generation, try “delousing” the closet of your own room.


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.

What exactly is "real life". Are people in school living in some sort of alternate galaxy?

9. Life is not divided into semesters. You do not get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. to that on your own time.

Ever heard of teachers and business owners? There is a ton of seasonal work in the "real world".

10. Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

OMG, really? Thanks for this, I thought that movies and television were an exact depiction of the average person's life.

It seems to me stupid lists like this are wrote by depressed, pessimistic people who have such a ****ty life they want to try and make others have the same negative outlook on everything that they do.

They wish to praise themselves by putting on display all of their "knowledge" and compress it into a list of 10 really dumb sentences that are as uninventive as they are cliche.

[Keith]

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

As far as I'm concerned life is pretty fair, unless you're involved in some sort of freak accident. You work hard, it will pay off. Some get lucky, that's always going to happen.

2. The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world expects you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel about yourself.

This makes no sense.

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.

I know 5 ppl off the top of my head that make more than that out of high school. It's not common, but very possible. Car phone?

4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.

If I absolutely hated my Boss I would just quit my job and find another.

5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping, they called it opportunity.

Flipping burgers is not an opportunity, and my grandparents were 30 years old when the first Mcdonalds was opened. The guy who wrote this is apparently a genius, and it must have been written for children of the future. That or he's just really stupid.

6. If you mess up, ifs not your parent’s fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Parenting is a direct cause of how children turn out.

7. Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way 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 parent’s generation, try “delousing” the closet of your own room.


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.

What exactly is "real life". Are people in school living in some sort of alternate galaxy?

9. Life is not divided into semesters. You do not get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. to that on your own time.

Ever heard of teachers and business owners? There is a ton of seasonal work in the "real world".

10. Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

OMG, really? Thanks for this, I thought that movies and television were an exact depiction of the average person's life.

It seems to me stupid lists like this are wrote by depressed, pessimistic people who have such a ****ty life they want to try and make others have the same negative outlook on everything that they do.

They wish to praise themselves by putting on display all of their "knowledge" and compress it into a list of 10 really dumb sentences that are as uninventive as they are cliche.

Haha, well put. Everything.

[thoughtshewas18]

life is life. and life is different for EVERYONE. i have leanred to enjoy the up's and tr4y my hardest to get through the DOWN'S and then laugh at them later on in life- because they are funny and it only makes us STRONGER

i love life and i agree whole heartedly with that list

[Bupp]

Hahn:

Growing up in North Ameria you already won the genetic lottery. You have many opportunities available to you just because you are born here instead of on some random rice paddy in the middle of bum-**** nowhere.

Life isn't fair. Get used to it.

That being said, everyone has got to make the most of what they have.

[Sensei]

We could knitpick it to death of course, but I thought it was a very clever list when I first read it 20 years ago.

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.

I know 5 ppl off the top of my head that make more than that out of high school. It's not common, but very possible. Car phone?

Again, 20 years ago...

[deeder]

We could knitpick it to death of course, but I thought it was a very clever list when I first read it 20 years ago.


Again, 20 years ago...

Lol I didn't realize it was 20 years old! I know I got this in all sorts of forwards a few years ago...

[bjohnso]

I remember when my dad had a car phone. This thing's pretty old.

[WORLD]

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

As far as I'm concerned life is pretty fair, unless you're involved in some sort of freak accident. You work hard, it will pay off. Some get lucky, that's always going to happen.

Life isn't fair. Not everyone is born into a family who sets them up with the same chance for an opportunity as the next person. Working hard can get you where you want, but consider a kid growing up in a family who lives in poverty with alcoholic parents, compared to a kid who grows up with the opposite. Is life fair then?

Also, not everyone is born equally and with the same mental ability to accomplish what the next person does, so again, how can life be fair?

[Invain]

Life is definitely not fair Hahn. Maybe you grew up in a very well off family and think it's fine and dandy. I'm not saying my life's not good too, but your view is a little skewed.

[HahnB]

You guys make a good point, I guess on a smaller scale what I meant is true, but as far as factors out of ones control (alcoholic parents)-life can be unfair.

[ProLogic]

All you body builders, definitely read the last one

[Runty]

I once saw an ad in a cop shop that had a little girl curled up in a fetal position in the corner that said: "It's hard to do your homework when your mom is bagging up 8-balls on the kitchen table."

Perfect example of how life isn't fair for some. A lot of people are born and raised into an environment that is a setup for them to fail.

On another note, I was all hungover and sleep deprived at the cop shop and thought the sign was hilarious when I first saw it.

[Invain]

You guys make a good point, I guess on a smaller scale what I meant is true, but as far as factors out of ones control (alcoholic parents)-life can be unfair.

Other than that though, I thought your comments were pretty funny, lol.

[Rusty]

"The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world expects you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself."

The world really doesn't care what you do. Last time I checked the world wasn't knocking on my door expecting me to do ****. The world expects nothing of you, as you should expect nothing from the world. You get what you take out of it.

Life isn't fair. Get used to it.

Yes it is. It gives everybody two arms, two legs, a head, and some genitals. Everybody is born and everybody dies. Sounds fair to me.

Life is fair, society isn't.