In building your personal brand, I strongly believe there is no wonder-recipe and no over-night way to do it. You have to start with the beginning and with your own person and thinking mechanisms. You shouldn’t try to do it by burning stages or something like this, as you may lose essential elements out of view.

While surfing around online, it happened from time to time to stumble upon a text that was supposedly written by Bill Gates, as part of a speech he gave at Mt. Whitney High School in Visalia, California. The text first surfaced as a part of Gates’ works around 2003, but it is actually much older (1995) and it is a part of Charles Sykes’ book – Dumbing Down our Kids.

Now, that this controversy is over, let’s focus on the content, as this is most important. The text is actually a set of 11 rules – “that you didn’t learn about in school and you’ll never do”. These rules are truisms, but it is so useful that someone synthetized them and put them in one piece of text, as it is truly worth it to read them and reflect for some time. In my opinion, Rule 1 is the Golden Rule we must always keep in sight (and this is in every aspect of our life, both professional and social) and it could become a great starting point in building a personal brand. You cannot build your personal brand if you are not quite aware of life’s realities and you go around thinking life is utopic. Rule 1 states that life is not fair and we should get used to it – nothing could be more true than this !

Another motive I believe these rules may become a starting point in building your personal brand is the fact that these rules give you a clear advantage. Not only you don’t go in life blind-folded, you know something that most people aren’t aware of and I think this clearly becomes an advantage by helping you keep your head on your shoulders.

I strongly encourage you to not only read the rules, but also take some time and reflect on them. This text is not something to read and read about, it’s not something that some other person should comment about for you. Even if the text was originally intended for high-school students, I believe it is valid for everyone trying to figure out a way in life and who’s willing to learn and develop. Read these carefully and then try to figure out the way each rule applies to your own person and your own personality, reflect upon the rules and think about moments and situations in your life when you could have taken advantage if you’d known these rules.

After some reflection, you may want to consider a way to make these rules part of your subconscious and of your thinking system. Think outside the box and try to find out how to use this simple text in creating your personal brand.

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 $40,000 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 are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents’ 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.