사실 인터넷 으로 원문 찾 다 보 니 빌게이츠 가 직접 쓴 글 은 아니 고 찰즈 시키즈 ( Charles J . Sykes ) 란 미국 의 교육학자 가 쓴 글 이 라고 하 네요 . 방황 할 때 , 또 사회 에 나가 기 전 에 한 번 쯤 읽 어 보 면 좋 을 듯 하 네요 . 감상 은 원문 으로 . .. Rule No . 1 : Life is not fair . Get used to it . The average teen - ager uses the phrase " It ' s not fair " 8 . 6 times a day . You got it from your parents , who said it so often you decided they must be the most idealistic generation ever . When they started hearing it from their own kids , they realized Rule No . 1 . Rule No . 2 : The real world won ' t care as much about your self - esteem as much as your school does . It ' ll expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself . This may come as a shock . Usually , when inflated self - esteem meets reality , kids complain that it ' s not fair . ( See Rule No . 1 ) Rule No . 3 : Sorry , you won ' t make $ 40 , 000 a year right out of high school . And you won ' t be a vice president or have a car phone either . You may even have to wear a uniform that doesn ' t have a Gap label . Rule No . 4 : If you think your teacher is tough , wait ' til you get a boss . He doesn ' t have tenure , so he tends to be a bit edgier . When you screw up , he ' s not going to ask you how you feel about it . Rule No . 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity . Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping . They called it opportunity . They weren ' t embarrassed making minimum wage either . They would have been embarrassed to sit around talking about Kurt Cobain all weekend . Rule No . 6 : It ' s not your parents ' fault . If you screw up , you are responsible . This is the flip side of " It ' s my life , " and " You ' re not the boss of me , " and other eloquent proclamations of your generation . When you turn 18 , it ' s on your dime . Don ' t whine about it , or you ' ll sound like a baby boomer . Rule No . 7 : Before you were born your parents weren ' t as boring as they are now . They got that way paying your bills , cleaning up your room and listening to you tell them how idealistic you are . And by the way , before you save the rain forest from the blood - sucking parasites of your parents ' generation , try delousing the closet in your bedroom . Rule No . 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers . Life hasn ' t . In some schools , they ' ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer . Failing grades have been abolished and class valedictorians scrapped , lest anyone ' s feelings be hurt . Effort is as important as results . This , of course , bears not the slightest resemblance to anything in real life . ( See Rule No . 1 , Rule No . 2 and Rule No . 4 . ) Rule No . 9 : Life is not divided into semesters , and you don ' t get summers off . Not even Easter break . They expect you to show up every day . For eight hours . And you don ' t get a new life every 10 weeks . It just goes on and on . While we ' re at it , very few jobs are interested in fostering your self - ｅxpression or helping you find yourself . Fewer still lead to self - realization . ( See Rule No . 1 and Rule No . 2 . ) Rule No . 10 : Television is not real life . Your life is not a sitcom . Your problems will not all be solved in 30 minutes , minus time for commercials . In real life , people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to jobs . Your friends will not be as perky or pliable as Jennifer Aniston . Rule No . 11 : Be nice to nerds . You may end up working for them . We all could . Rule No . 12 : Smoking does not make you look cool . It makes you look moronic . Next time you ' re out cruising , watch an 11 - year - old with a butt in his mouth . That ' s what you look like to anyone over 20 . Ditto for " expressing yourself " with purple hair and / or pierced body parts . Rule No . 13 : You are not immortal . ( See Rule No . 12 . ) If you are under the impression that living fast , dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic , you obviously haven ' t seen one of your peers at room temperature lately . Rule No . 14 : Enjoy this while you can . Sure parents are a pain , school ' s a bother , and life is depressing . But someday you ' ll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid . Maybe you should start now . You ' re welcome .