I was given the "mantras" of riding: Take your MSF class, wear your gear, and ride your own ride (all great pieces of advice everyone should be told).
But I was also (thankfully) warned that a 600 is not a "little" bike (when I first decided I wanted to get a bike, I wanted a then-new ZX6R 636, and was operating under the mistaken impression that it's "only" a 600
).
As for what I WISH I'd been told? Hah, how friggin addictive riding is!!!!