Before I start resuming the chapters that I read, I´ll write something about the author and the making of this book. When the book was still in proposal stage, the author asked countless family members and friends of what advices or tips would they give to teenage guys. Many of these tips came from those conversations. He also thanked his wife for the wisdom that she shared on many of these pages and giving her time to help him, he thanked her teenage daughters for sharing a number of great ideas.
The author still wanted to look for more advices, so he sent his family a group text and asked, “What advices would you give today´s teenage guys?” his phone started to blow up with group replies, more than twenty texts in the next five minutes, and they were really good stuff. He also asked the same question in his blog and a hundred more pieces of advice poured in. Now back to the chapters, in this book, I only chose the best advices and tips for teenagers, I didn’t read the chapters in order.
The first chapter that I read is called “Today´s nerd is tomorrow’s boss.” It happens all the time; the bullies begin roaming in search for the perfect nerd to shove them into the garbage can, hanging them on their locker hook by their underwear and other things. If only those bullies knew that they’re torturing their future boss. If you’re a bully, think twice about who you´re giving a wedgie. You guys know who´s bill gates, Mark Zuckerburg, the creator of Facebook? These guys were total nerds! So if you’re a nerd who studies and works hard while the bullies are sitting on their behinds? Don’t worry, the tables will turn and your hard work will pay off. In another part, there´s another chapter that I read and its about always respecting the word “no”. “No” means no, end of story, a lot of guys have trouble respecting that word.
If a girl ever says no, that isn’t something that´s up for negotiation. Argue with a girl´s “no” and you will get what´s coming to you from any caring father. Trust me, it won’t be pleasant. The word “no” isn’t something to mess with, ever. Respect it from your parents, friends, teachers and especially your girlfriend. By the way, I read another chapter about girls being sexualized. The sad thing about it is that they buy the lie to have value and think that the world is telling them that being “sexy” is what matters most. A girl might think that she wants to be sexual with you. But what she really wants is love, care and respect. That´s the problem, guys don’t realize that girls need that kind of attention. Sadly, they don’t look in that way, so show them genuine love, care and respect. They deserve to have that kind of love than being sexual, they´re more than that.
Now, I´ll go further to the chapters of the book. Here´s an interesting chapter to tell you guys about, which is chapter eighty seven. So you´re grounded again, you did something bad, came home and your parents are mad because they noticed of what you did. You were hanging out with Chase right? Maybe that´s not his name, but you know exactly who am I talking about. That guy who always seems to get you into trouble. Admit it, Chase is an idiot. Don’t hang out with idiots like him. They´re many reasons why, think about it; he always pushes off limits, he doesn’t care if he gets into trouble, nor he doesn’t care about your best interests, he´s going to be sneaking out, getting drunk, watching porn all day, etc. It’s really simple, when you hang out with chase, you´re two steps from trouble, choose better friends than Chase.
Now to the next chapter, this chapter is about something that happened in school. The author will never forget the fight between Steve and Brian. When he was in high school, he and his classmates always have PE class three days a week, which means that they have to go to the boy´s locker room and get dressed for PE. It´s amazing what a young man can learn from the other guys in the locker room. It´s probably the one place where guys will talk about whatever they want. Their PE teacher was never around and the girls were in their own locker room. So this left a bunch of fourteen and fifteen year old guys unsupervised for about ten minutes while they changed clothes. He can rarely remember a conversation that wasn’t a rated R movie or XXX.
Brian was one of the worst. He would kiss his girlfriend goodbye and whisper sweet words before class started. And then he´d walk into the locker room and tell him and the other guys of what he planned to do with her that night, in explicit detail. He and several other guys often bragged about what they have done with various girls, especially the girls that the author knew, and even rated them by their looks and their “performance”. One day, the conversation came around a girl whom Brian said he hoped to get his hands on, he made a few comments about this girl’s body and what he planned to do to her, and that´s when it happened, Brian didn’t know that he was talking about Steve´s sister. Voices were raised and soon fists were flying.
Steve was hitting Brian with such anger, which made the situation bizarre because Steve also joked with Brian about other girls, their bodies and every sexual act you could imagine. But when Brian mentioned his sister, everything changed. Steve´s sister was off limits. Next time, think twice before you look at a girl or talk about her and trust me, you don’t want Steve beating you up right? Also remember, the girl that you´re checking out is someone´s sister or daughter. Now to the next chapter, this principle is simple: Everyone makes mistakes. In other words, when you mess up, take notes of why and figure out how to navigate the situation better next time.
Let’s say it’s a Thursday night and your friends are all hanging out together and having fun. You want to hang out too, but you have a big English test next day. You decided to skip studying and hang out with your friends instead. Hours passed and you came home late and doze off to bed. The next day, you take your test and do horribly. You get a “D” and the grad in your class drops an entire letter grade. All that for a couple of hours of fun. Was it really worth it, did you had so much fun, couldn’t you have studied Thursday and invited your friends over to your house in a Friday or Saturday night. Here´s a point, you made a mistake. So what? It happens; you don’t become a fool unless you repeat the same mistake. Everyone makes mistakes, don’t beat yourself up. But don’t miss the opportunity to learn from the experience, wisdom is paved with past mistakes.
Changing the subject, I also read another chapter about not driving while texting. “One quick little text won’t hurt.” That’s what literally millions of teenage drivers say every year as they pull out their phone and fire off a quick text from behind the wheel. That´s what Savannah Nash thought when she attempted a quick text on her first solo drive after getting her driver´s license. Less than a week after she turned sixteen, Savannah got permission to go to the grocery store on an errand. She turned left while looking down at her phone, turning right into a path of a semi truck in oncoming traffic. She was killed instantly.
According to AT&T, ninety seven percent of teens say texting while driving is “dangerous”, seventy five percent claim it is very dangerous and forty three percent still text and drive anyway. So if you´re tempted to text while driving, remember one thing: the text can wait. Quick question, you want to be in front?
Then get in the back of the line. Want to lead? Then serve. I know, its sounds paradoxical but it’s a great wisdom for you ad Jesus. Good leaders don’t just sit on their butts and bark out orders; they listen, care and serve. Think of what this would look like at home. What kind of dad will you be? That treats his kids and wife like slaves or truly cares and demonstrates it with acts of love? Will you help your kids with their problems or going well in life? Will you serve them well? Also, what kind of husband will you be? Will you make dinner for your wife, make the bed and do the laundry when it’s needed? How will you serve her and make her feel love and appreciated? By the way, what kind of boss will you be? The one who just barks orders or demonstrating others of how to do the job and be for them when they need you?
If you want to be a great leader, then serve. According to recent media consumption report, kids between all ages of eight and eighteen spend most of their time on listening to music. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that headphones are bad, I use them too. But what I’m talking about is that headphones become the primary speakers through we listen to music. But for some people it’s uncommon to see you walking around with headphones. It tells others “I want to be alone.” It keeps you from hearing and knowing what´s going on around you, it sometimes makes you an antisocial person. Music can be a lot of fun, but try to hang out with other people. Before we go to the final chapter, let me give you a quick advice from the book. Always open doors for all women and girls because it sends a positive message: I respect women, I´m servant who´s not afraid to humble myself, mommy didn’t raise no dummy, etc.
This one simple act communicates that you value women and they´ll respect you for it. Now the final chapter, it’s about gaming, don’t get me wrong, I´m not going to tell you that gaming is evil. I like video games; I heard a lot of research that gaming is good for your brain, developing hand/eye coordination and among other things. But gaming can be a problem too, too much gaming has consequences. Trust me, it happens to a lot of people and also happened to me too. Most importantly, your Xbox game score will not go on your resume, so put down your controller every once in a while and go outside.
