Rules You Will Follow

 I spent twenty-eight and a half years teaching students a career in the skilled trades. They learned to follow the rules. All my life I heard, “You can take a horse to water but you can't make him drink.” WRONG! If you put enough salt in his food he will be happy to drink.  I may have had the wrong scriptural interpretation of Jesus saying, “Ye are the salt of the earth. . .” but, I became the salt in their lives and they learned to “drink”.

 Many of my students still stay in touch with me. I receive Christmas cards, phone calls and some just stop by to see how I am doing. For many it was the first time in their life they had to live by the rules.

Some of the more “challenging” students have called me years later to tell me they had given their heart to the Lord and were active in their church. I have been truly blessed to have been allowed by God to lead some of my students to the Lord--- not but preaching the Word ----but by living the Word.

(You might notice I am not a touchy-feely person)

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 luxury car 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 parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: This school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. This school may 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.

Rule 12: I am not your mom, so pick-up after yourself—I won't!

Rule 13: The last half of American is I CAN!

Rule 14: Real life is made up of RULES get use to following the rules.

Rule 15: You are not entitled to an education, a job, a car, a house, medical benefits, and respect they must ALL be earned.

Rule 16: In the real world you won't get by with only doing 75% of the job right. Just because you installed three tires on a car correctly, the customer will expect all four tires installed correctly---which is 100%.

Rule 17: I am not your mom or dad. If I say NO, I mean NO! Don't ask me twice!

Rule 18: Come to learn.

Rule 19: If you have no purpose in life you have no direction. If you have no direction you have no idea where you are going. If you don't know where your going you had better find out soon.

Rule 20: Life is hard, success requires a desire to be the best. You must work hard and give your best effort.

If you follow these rules I will promise you will  find success.  I do not train losers, I train winners.

After having read these rules you may be wondering did they work? I taught over three thousand students during my career, many of my students today are successful business owners, top technicians in their company, design engineers, programmers, and educators. My program was ranked as one of the top programs in the nation, and four years in a row the top program in the United States.  Many of the students were in the top 2% of students in the nation.  Why?  They learned to follow the rules.

If you look hard you will find most of the rules are based on Biblical principles. Maybe you can find them.