Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! To anyone with kids of any age, here’s some advice.

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings, created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

• 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 $60,000 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 is tough, wait till you get a boss.
• 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 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.
• Rule 8 : 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.
• 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.

I don’t know if this is true because it was forwarded to me like most of these email chain letters or jokes. Most of these resonate with me so I’m republishing them anyway. And you may also be interested in watching this excellent hour long interview with Bill Gates on the Charlie Rose show on Google Video here:

Popularity: 19% [?]

There is a debate that crops up every now and then, trying to explain the behaviour of human beings. It’s called the nature vs nurture debate and speaks about how our overall behaviour patterns is determined by our genes (nature) or how we are raised by our parents (nurture). It’s clear that both play a role but more and more of my own thinking is leaning toward nurture in a big way, especially when you consider the revolutionary work on the Biology of Belief by Dr Bruce Lipton.

The short answer is not to be devided in your thinking and you being. Your message must be clear, must be short and when in doubt show the opposite to be wrong and ergo makes your message right. Remember we live in a world of duality. For every wrong there is always a right, for every bad there’s always a good, for every forward there’s always a backward.

Just a short overview of two movies that demonstrate the right and the wrong way to approach your life as a man:

1. The Groomsmen: A film written, directed and starred in by Edward Burns. I liked most of his previous films because they seemed real and down to earth. However, after this one I realised how he often plays the most self-pittying characters. In many ways he symbolises what is wrong with the modern man. And as Tom Leykis and comedian George Carlin calls the continued pussification of America (and the rest of the world).

And in this particular movie he is so distracted and divided in himself. He can’t decide to get married or not to get married. His girlfriend is pregnant and he feels like he needs to do the right thing. This is the worst roll model I’ve seen on screen in a long while for what a confident, mature man needs to be like. Women will likely enjoy this move more because of the cliche “happy ending.”

2. Thank You For Smoking: Aaron Eckhart in this satire is a real powerhouse because he is so raw and so authentic it feels like a slap in the face for a wake-up call. As a tabacco lobbyist he has one of the most notorious jobs in the world. Trying to spin the research, the complaints, the victims, the media, and still come out on top. There’s a great rapport between him and his son (who also featured in Nicole Kidman’s Birth).

Nick Naylor, the main character is cunnning lingust and more so a superb spokesman, cool, calm, collected and knows how to duck and dive the questions, giving answers or responses in a way that focusses the audience on what’s wrong with the person trying to debate with him. And he’s always able to turn things around to fit his worldview. In the seduction community this would be called having a strong frame. The only way to surive and thrive is by having a stronger frame then the other people around you.

So the secret to success for a man is not being divided. People are easily swayed by opinions of others. And you must stand your ground and believe yourself first before you expect other people to believe in you.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Last night I did a half hour long interview on SAFM with Lynette Francis. We discussed online dating, speed dating and sms dating. Trying to get people into the mood for Valentine’s Day. My friend Jenny Cereseto from SMARTdate was the only caller and made a good case for speed dating over online dating. My personal opinion is that most of the people using any of these services have some low self-esteem issues. The reason is simple: people who are confident, social and humourous personalities do not need these websites because they are meeting people all the time. And people want to meet them because of those core personality traits which make them stand-out from the rest. So in my personal plans to improve my dating life I’ve used all these dating services but I found the best results has been when I developed my competence with women, my social skills and my sense of humour.

Tomorrow night, Valentine’s Day I’ve been invited back onto Goodhope FM with Dr Eve on her weekly show. Its a pity I will not be in studio because I’ve wanted to meet Natalie Becker, who replaced Jeannie D, for a long time. As another dating guru once said its not about me and my life, its about spreading the good news.

Popularity: 17% [?]

A speed-dating event took place last night in New York City with very unusual criteria. The 40 men all had to be wealthy, and the 40 women all had to be beautiful.

Jimmy Cyrus is a 25-year-old New York City bachelor who works 16-hour days.

He also happens to be wealthy, an asset that made him eligible for the Natural Selection speed-dating event open only to “rich guys” and “hot girls.”

Cyrus, who works in real estate, was one of nearly 150 well-to-do single men in the running for the Manhattan matchmaking event.

If he made the cut, the ticket costs $500. But for that steep a fee Cyrus may have a chance to meet Heather Tierney, a 27-year-old entrepreneur living in New York, who has also applied to attend the matchmaking event. If the Indianapolis native is chosen, her entrance fee is just $30.

Speed dating is nothing new. For the last few years, single Americans have spent evenings in bars getting paired up with other singletons in four to eight-minute “dates.”

But last night’s Natural Selection gathering puts a spin on the trend by reinforcing some age-old ideas about relationships: Men go for looks, and women prowl for money.

Bank Books vs. Beauty Bibles

This is often the case when it comes to dating, according to a couple of recent studies, which suggest that women place high value on income, while men value looks. Still, Natural Selection has been getting mixed reactions, according to organizer Jeremy Abelson, co-founder of Pocket Change, a monthly newsletter that informs New Yorkers about the most expensive goods and services in town.

“The sad thing is not the fact that we would put it together,” Abelson, 26, said. “The sad thing is that people will actually pay for it. The beautiful thing is that it exposes innate desires in dating.”

But entrance into the upscale speed-dating affair won’t be easy.

A man hoping to snag the woman of his dreams will be judged by pretty stiff criteria. Guys who are 25 and under must make at least $200,000 a year, and men between the ages of 26 and 30 have to bring home $300,000 a year. Older than 30? The required income level jumps to $500,000.

Not gainfully employed? No problem. Men who have at least $1 million in invested assets or a $4 million trust fund can apply.

“The man could be worth $2 billion, be 83 years old and can attend,” said Abelson, who added that men must show proof of earnings or savings to apply.

For women there’s only one guideline: beauty. Five photos are all that’s needed to enter the competition. Education, profession, personality and income will not be considered.

Applications started flowing in shortly after the event was announced. Just days after an ad for Natural Selection ran in New York Magazine, Pocket Change received nearly 150 responses from men, along with about 300 applications from women, who have submitted photos ranging from cute poses with dogs to sexy lingerie shots.

read the full article here…

Popularity: 9% [?]