Bill Gates Punched a Time Card Everyday

When I was a very young man, just starting out in the wonderful world of work, a mentor of sorts, told me to always keep my nose to the grindstone. He went on to explain that good hard work was the secret to success, money, security, and advancement. I cherished that advice as I bit my lip and lowered my shoulder into the great unknown in front of me. As the years went along, I found myself in a number of different disciplines, and I always lived by the motto of the hardest working man I had ever known. Success and fortune awaited me, possibly at any corner of the road in front of me. It was mine for the taking; I was to simply sacrifice the sweat upon my brow, and the spirit that lay deep in my soul. I rode an ocean of differing economic tides and found myself laid off several times, and even fired once for a reason I am still contemplating. Several times throughout my tenure, I wanted to give up, I wanted to give in, and blend in, to perform simply a mediocre job; to behave much like the sprawl of other slackers, but I could almost taste the rewards of my hard work, and dedication.
Almost fifteen years after I had punched the first slot on a timecard, I ran into my mentor. He explained proudly that he was still working for the same company, ‘twenty-four years now, and I still have my nose to the grindstone, working as hard now as I did on my first day.’ While I admired his honest, and sincere enthusiasm in knowing he had always worked with a sincere attitude, and undying devotion to his trade, I couldn’t help but notice, he had gone very little in the success department, and was lagging even further behind in the fortune and security division. That’s when I came to the unsettling conclusion that what I had been taught and conditioned to my whole life was, in the simplest terms I can articulate, a total and complete crock of shit. I started to think of the great success stories of modern times: Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Warren Buffett, they are mavericks; people who didn’t follow the rules. Even historically, the greatest people in our nation’s history have been the individuals, who by their own admission, saw that the people around them were going nowhere and decided instead, to go somewhere. They broke the rules, did things their own way, and forged their own existence. Going into work every day, punching in on time every day, working hard and efficiently every day, only guarantees you’ll do that samething, everyday, for the rest of your life.