A few weekends ago I was at a Fitness Business Summit in Morristown, NJ. On the first day world renowned strength coach Mike Boyle spoke. Now this man has shared with me through his writings more knowledge on strength & conditioning that i could just copy what he does and be a very successful strength coach. I have heard Coach Boyle speak a few times on topics related to strength & conditioning but this was my first experience listening to him speak on being a professional and succeeding as a professional. During his presentation he shared these words from a commencement address Bill Gates once gave:
Rule 1 – Life is not fair – get used to it.
Rule 2 – The world won’t care about yourself esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.
Rule 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.
Rule 4 – If you think your teacher was tough, wait till you meet your boss. He or she doesn’t have tenure.
Rule 5 – Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different view of flipping – they called it opportunity.
Rule 6 – If you mess up, it’s your 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 – Schools 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 need to get the right answer. This does not bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.
Rule 9 – Life is not divided into semesters. You won’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Don that on your own.
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.
With many High School and College grads preparing to move forward to the next aspect of their life these simple words from one extremely successful man and shared to me by another will help me move forward in my life and I hope those who read this post will put these 11 simple rules to use in their lives.
