thoughts you should know...
...Bill Gates' 11 rules of real life

Recently Bill Gates spoke to a high school audience about what they will never learn in school. “Feel-good, politically correct teachings are creating a generation of kids with no concept of reality,” he said, setting many of them up for failure in the real world. Herewith are BG’s 11 Rules of Life:

Rule 1: Life is not fair… so get used to it!

Rule 2: The world could care less about your self-esteem.
Instead, it expects 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. Forgeddabowdit.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get your first 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: 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 years of paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, driving you places and endless hours of hearing you talk about how cool you are.

Rule 8: Some schools have abolished failing grades and will give you as many chances as you need to come up with the right answer. This bears not the slightest resemblance to real life. Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. Translation: no summers off! And very few employers care about helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Despite the premise of one recent very popular TV show (“Friends”), in real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop sometimes and go out and do real work at a real job.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Contributed by Chloe Lizotte

thought leader university...
...3 upcoming events

“The Leadership Difference” with Michael Shenkman PhD., author of The Arch and the Path: The Life of Leading Greatly, hosted by the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, in Albuquerque , New Mexico . May 10, 7:30 AM -1:30 PM. Michael will conduct the keynote address and two workshops and sign copies of his new book. For more info, click: http://abqchamber.com/index2.asp

“Thought Leading: The Art of Separating Yourself from the Pack!” with Ken Lizotte CMC at New Frontiers of Consulting, the 2005 national conference of the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC USA ), in Kansas City , MO . May 21-24. For more info, click http://www.imcusa.org/

• “A Chief Customer Officer Maximizes Profits, Success” by Curtis Bingham, President of The Predictive Consulting Group, in IndUS Business Journal

• “What Drives Shareholder Value in Family Firms?” by Mary Adams and Michael Oleksak, Principals of Trek Consulting LLC, in Family Business Online

• Suzanne Bates’ new book Speak Like A CEO: Secrets For Commanding Attention And Getting Results was officially published this month by McGraw-Hill. President of Bates Communication, Suzanne is an award winning news anchor and sought-after CEO communication coach and keynote speaker.

• Wolf Greenfield client Saul Palder, inventor of Smart Spin, was interviewed by the Boston Globe

• “Intelligent Cleaning: Value Add for Medical Device Manufacturers Through Validation” by David A. Vogel, President of Intertech Engineering Associates Inc., in CleanTech Magazine

• “Defend Against Price of Tech Evolution—Get Better IT Support” by Vin D’Amico, President of Damicon LLC, in his monthly column “Virtual Business” in IndUS Business Journal

• “A Web of Protection: Coping With the New Patent Fee Structure” by Edmund Walsh and Michael Siekman, both Counsel with Wolf Greenfield, in Mass High Tech

• “Physicians Come On Board” by Robert McGowan, Senior Principal of Mitretek Healthcare, in Healthcare Informatics

• Ilan Barzilay, Associate at Wolf Greenfield, was quoted in Chemical and Engineering News