11 Things I wish someone told me when I was 18

Bill gates mug-shot at Albuquerque, NM police station for traffic violation. Source

A while back I had penned this to a few super-smart individuals aged almost 18. As I was going through the email today, I realized it has to be published to a wider audience. Of course, I edited out things in it which were about them and modified the article for a rather generic audience. However, the core message and gist is as -is