THERE are times when I’d like to pour petrol over and set fire to everything with the Microsoft name.
I have nothing personal against the company’s founder, Bill Gates, though. He seems a good egg, if a little geeky.
This aside, there’s the start of a legend about how he laid down a few home truths in a school he visited recently.
Allegedly he told the kids that feelgood, politically correct teachings had created a generation with no concept of reality.
This would set them up for failure in the real world.
“Life is not fair – get used to it!” he is said to have started.
“The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.
“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.
“If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
“Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping – they called it opportunity.
“If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
“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.
“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.
“Very few employers are interested in helping you ‘find yourself’. Do that in your own time.
“Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.”
It’s good advice and applies both sides of the Atlantic.
