Bill Gates: The Pessimist

             The wonderful aspect about individuality is the abundance and variety of personal views and opinion. Many of these ideas stem from each person's life experiences. The environment in which a person is raised effects his or her own philosophies on life issues. In a recent speech given to high school students, multibillionaire and Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates made eleven distinct statements that he apparently came to terms with during the quest for his current self. I find some of these statements or "rules- truly profound, yet others positively revolting. After hearing Mr. Gates' opinions, one can perceive that he is clearly a realist, however pessimistic tones graze the majority of his statements. .
             Gates' number-one rule: "Life is not fair "get used to it- is not a new idea. Many people believe that no, in fact, life is not fair, and that we are all doomed to an enviable fate of continuous unfairness. I concur with those people who believe this, but only to a certain degree. If life were perceived as nothing but fair, where would we all be? It would cause none of us to strive to be all that we can, because as long as we were good people, than life would simply be fair to us. Another rule of Gates' that intertwines with the analyzed premise behind his first rule is his fifth: "Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping "they called it opportunity."" This statement seems to contradict the ten others given in the same speech. The idea being to constantly push yourself. If Gates' believes in the advancing of each young person's quality of life, than why would he encourage such a disgraceful profession? But I suppose my thinking is just that of a stereotypical teenager: snobby and sloppy, as Gates implies in a number of his rules.
             It is my opinion that Gates' teenage years were not his best. I extract this theory solely from his apparent disdain for teenage America.