The Challenge at Outward Bound

A stunning morning camped at Red Tarn below Helvellyn

I have just completed my forth week working for Outward Bound on The Challenge. This flagship program for school leavers is expanding widely next year after a very successful summer (and in view of the recent riots). Last week PM David Cameron and the local MP Rory Stewart were at OB Howtown joing in with a group building and sailing a raft on Ullswater and this week we had a BBC Newsnight film crew in. Another very positive course which challenged the youngsters views on life and developed bonds across various groups in their neighborhood.

A soggy group make their way back off a demanding expedition

Bill Gates' (founder of Microsoft) take on personal development....Defiantly something we can all use here!

1. Life is not fair; get used to it.
2. The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.
3. You will not make £100,000 a year right out of school.
   
4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.
5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.
6. If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
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 cuboard in your own room.
8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; 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.
9. Life is not divided into terms. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that in your own time.
10. Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
11. Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.