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You’ve probably seen this already. A list of 11 life lessons that they don’t teach kids in school. Normally attributed to Bill Gates, sometimes from a speech he gave at MIT, sometimes to a small group of kids in a California high school. The list is a long standing favourite online and has been forwarded and passed around so many times, its origins have become apocryphal.

Turns out Bill Gates didn’t give this as a speech at a high school or MIT. In fact he never said any of these things. These 11 rules have never even been a speech!

After a little digging, I found out these rules are an excerpt from an op-ed piece by bestselling author Charles Sykes. Originally there were 14 rules, but the last three are usually omitted because rule 11 is particularly punchy. Since 2000, this particular bit of text has been attributed to everyone from Kurt Vonnegut to Atlanta state representative Brooks Coleman. Over the years references have been changed and the salary amounts have increased, but what hasn’t changed is the core of the message.

There's some excellent wisdom here for kids. However, just because we’re not teenagers, doesn’t mean there aren’t some great business lessons in here as well! 
PS – if you want to read the original “11 Rules”, they can be found here.

So, here's the Connected Market Coach’s 11 Things they didn’t Teach you in School (with inspiration from Charles Sykes):

1.  Business is not Fair:
Great technology, a good product or excellent value doesn’t automatically mean success. In order to be really, truly successful, you need more than great ideas. You have to tap into what the market wants and needs from you, engage your customers and clients and work to understand their needs.

2. The World Doesn’t Care about Your Self Esteem:
The world’s a tough place. That’s why all the world’s most successful entrepreneurs have tenacity. Remember when Apple looked like it would be crushed under Microsoft’s heel? How times have changed! If you don’t give up when it looks like you’re going to fail, you’ve automatically doubled your chances of success.

3. You won’t make big money fast:
On average it takes 11 years for entrepreneurial businesses to succeed. No business plan should be for the short term. Setting long term goals and planning for your future will help you achieve what you want.

4. You are your own toughest boss:
You know that you’re busy, but you don’t have to go it alone – you can use automated systems to help you manage your time and keep track of your work and take some of the pressure off.

5. Opportunity wears many hats:
Entrepreneurs wear a lot of hats. Sales, marketing, customer service… whatever it takes to get the job done. You might not be able to work less, but the work you do can be better organized and more efficient if you make smart use of technology.

6. Learn from your mistakes:
Assessing your performance is one of the most important things you can do in business. When you take a time out, you’re figuring out what is moving you closer to your goals, and what you could be doing better. It’s one of the four fundamental pillars of business success.

7. Your life didn’t start out so complicated. You can simplify it:
How do you work? Unneeded technology and duplicated functionality wastes you money, time and resources. Stepping back and breaking free of the technology tangle is the first step to a transformed business reality.

8. You don’t get unlimited chances to accomplish something:
Before a successful company or sports team does anything, they get "into the zone." They figure out the rules of the game, what they’ll be up against and what they need to do to ensure they succeed.

9. Summer vacation is for kids
You don’t really get a chance to sit back on your heels and relax when you’re an entrepreneur. You need to regroup and apply the lessons learned to facilitate constant improvement in your business.

10. Being an entrepreneur is a lot of work, but it shouldn’t be everything you do all the time:
Work shouldn’t be constant and soul crushing. Streamlining your processes, focusing your efforts, talking to the right people and automating your time consuming tasks can help you manage the workload.

11. Be nice to nerds – you could work for one:
We’re hiring! But I warn you, we’re all nerds.