Bill Gates is one of the most influential and wealthiest people the world has ever seen. He’s a ruthless businessman who built Microsoft into a software empire that would dominate office and home computing around the world.
With the Bill Gates era coming to an end at Microsoft, this is the perfect opportunity to look back and examine five preeminent lessons we have learned from the world’s greatest computer geek.
Forbes named Gates as the world’s richest person for 13 years straight. But all good things must come to an end. On June 27, he is leaving the company he co-founded more than 30 years ago to devote himself to philanthropic work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Here’s a look back at Gates’ career and what lies ahead for him.
To be the Next Bill Gates: Follow this simple steps.
Start Early
Gates developed a fascination with computers at an early age and earned permission to be excused from middle school classes to study programming. “Even as a child, Gates was determined to do something spectacular and have fun along the way, entering the adult world prematurely with enough emotional stability to sustain his place and make his mark,” writes career psychologist Siobhan Hamilton-Phillips in an e-mail to Forbes.com.
Develop a Clear Vision–and Stick to It
Gates started his first software company at age 17 and, from the beginning, dreamed of developing it into a corporate giant. “At a young age, Gates devoted time to practicing his skills and seeking more information about what fascinated him: approaching problems, testing ideas,” says Andrea Kay, career consultant and author of Life’s a Bitch and Then You Change Careers. “He’s gifted, with incredible focus.”
Break the Rules–Within Reason
School wasn’t for Gates, and he knew it. He ditched Harvard at age 20 to found Microsoft. But before you make a dangerous career choice, make sure you’ve thought through the consequences. “It would be a mistake to generalize from Bill Gates’ dropping out to infer that most aspiring entrepreneurs should drop out,” San Francisco-based career coach Marty Nemko writes in an e-mail. “One needs Gates’ unusual combination of Harvard-level intelligence and drive, ruthlessness masked by boyish charm, and–maybe the most important of all–luck.”
Hire Your Friends
Gates’ Microsoft cohorts have been with him from the very beginning, and the loyalty with which he’s treated them has produced big returns. He met the co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen, when he was only 13, and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is a friend since their days at Harvard. Strong personal relationships provide a level of trust that extends beyond the workplace, and they guarantee that your employees will perform at a high level for you.
Image Is Everything
Gates has successfully transformed himself from a rebel upstart to a corporate leader to a groomed philanthropist, and in doing so has dictated how the public perceives him. “As he’s gotten older, he’s been able to present himself as more mature and more corporate: His glasses got smaller, his hair got tamer,” says Barbara Pachter, career coach and author of New Rules @ Work. “Now he’s moving from that image to that of the elder statesman, so he’s clearly able to develop his image based on how he wants people to look at him.”
Don’t Get Complacent
Despite becoming a billionaire at age 38, Gates didn’t stop prioritizing innovation. That’s because his desire to achieve goes beyond profit. He’s obsessed with his industry and has a passion for developing new ideas. When choosing a career, make sure you have a genuine interest in what you’re doing. Your performance will never cease to improve as a result, experts say, and the money will come later.
Know Yourself
Throughout his career, Gates has succeeded by pursuing his passions, from basic programming up to philanthropy. He’s never settled for work he didn’t believe in. “Readers should look at Gates as someone who has been successful as a total human being, not just as a businessman,” says Alexandra Levit, career expert and author of How’d You Score That Gig? “This is, admittedly, a new definition for success, but one that’s becoming increasingly important as the boundaries between the personal and the professional continue to blur.”
10 Big Moments for him:
MITS Altair 8800
You get brownie points if you remember this microcomputer, released in 1975 and targeted to hobbyists. It ran Microsoft’s first product: Altair BASIC.
Albuquerque Group
Check out this blast-from-the-past photo: It’s the original 11 Microsoft employees at their office in Albuquerque, N.M., in 1978. Gates is sporting a toothy smile in the bottom left corner.
The Big Break
Co-founders Gates and Paul Allen surrounded by computers in 1981, shortly after signing a major contract with IBM to write software for its new line of PCs.
Microsoft Goes Public
The company went public in 1986, 11 years after Gates co-founded it with friend Paul Allen. On the first day of trading, Microsoft shares jumped $7 to $28. Gates owned about 45% of the company’s stock,
and this got him onto Forbes’ list of the richest Americans for the first time, with a net worth of $315 million.
A Billionaire Is Born
Just a year after Microsoft went public, the company’s stock soared six-fold and Gates became a billionaire. Forbes estimated his net worth at $1.25 billion in 1987.
Marries Melinda
Gates seemed to be enjoying the swinging bachelor life until he met Melinda French, who was a product manager at Microsoft. The two married in 1994 and now have three children: Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe. Melinda French Gates is the co-founder and co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on world health issues. She is also a director of the Washington Post Co.
Windows 95
The hype and the money spent on the launch of this product was ginormous. Microsoft spent an estimated $300 million marketing it (and a couple more million for the rights to use the Rolling Stones’ Start Me Up as its anthem). Microsoft spread itself everywhere for this one, even foisting its company colors on the Empire State Building.
Mr. Antitrust
In 1998, Gates took the stand to testify in the United States v. Microsoft antitrust trial. Plaintiffs alleged the company was a monopoly that abused its power to coerce PC makers into buying its operating system and using its Web browser–thereby crushing then-competitor Netscape. Gates denied the allegations.
‘Pirates Of Silicon Valley’
This 1999 TV movie about the rivalry between Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs starred Anthony Michael Hall, the nerd from The Breakfast Club, as Gates. Noah Wiley of TV’s never-ending series ER played Jobs. Both Gates and Jobs come off as psychopaths. Great fun–if you haven’t seen it yet, add it to your Netflix queue.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Come July, Gates will work full time at the foundation he and his wife founded in 2000. The foundation, which has an endowment of $37 billion, helps organizations around the world to combat infectious diseases, reduce extreme poverty around the globe and improve high school education in the U.S. It works closely with the private sector. The Gateses have said they hope to spend down the foundation’s resources during their lifetimes.
Bill Gates’ Fortune Over The Years
1986
Net worth: $315 million
In March, Microsoft–the company Gates co-founded 11 years earlier–goes public. Gates retains about 45% of the company’s stock. On the first day of trading, shares jump $7 above the offering price to $28 a share. Gates appears on Forbes’ list of the richest Americans for the first time with a fortune of $315 million.
1987
Net worth: $1.25 billion
Growing excitement about the potential for the software industry catapults Microsoft stock higher. At one point, it’s six times the value of the initial public offering price. Gates becomes a billionaire. Despite the wealth, he says he has no desire to retire: “I’m tied to the wheel.”
1990
Net worth: $2.5 billion
Microsoft releases Windows 3.0. It’s a hit. About 2 million copies are shipped by the end of the year and Microsoft becomes the first personal computer software company with sales to exceed $1 billion annually. At a conference, Gates describes his strategy as putting “Windows everywhere.” Shares climb. Gates’ fortune doubles from the previous year.
1995
Net worth: $14.8 billion
Bill Gates’ fortune rises steadily throughout the early ’90s along with Microsoft’s stock price. In 1995, the company releases its Windows 95 operating system. Sells more than 1 million copies on its first four days on the market. Another accomplishment for Gates: His book, The Road Ahead, tops bestsellers lists.
1997
Net worth: $39.8 billion
Gates’ net worth more than doubles from the previous year. He’s now $19 billion richer than America’s second-richest person, Warren Buffett. Gates begins to take it easy. He says in a Forbes column he’s cutting down on his hours at the office: “Most days I don’t work more than 12 hours. On weekends I rarely work more than eight hours.”
1999
Net worth: $85 billion
The frenzy for tech stocks pushes Gates’ net worth to $85 billion. His one-year increase is more than $25 billion or about $3 million per hour. Tells Forbes he can envision his second-in-command Steve Ballmer taking over in the next decade.
10 Predictions From Bill Gates
No. 1: Automatic News Filter
Reality Check: Almost there. This exists on the Web for text stories in the form of RSS feeds. As video searching and tagging technology improves, Gates will be proved right.
No. 2: Digital Dollars
“If your son needs money, you might digitally slip five bucks from your wallet PC to his.”
Reality Check: Maybe Gates’ kids can do this. For the rest of us, PayPal comes close.
No. 3: It Fits!
“It is conceivable that within a few years, everyone will have measurements registered electronically so it will be easy to find out how well a ready-made item will fit, or to place a custom order.”
Reality Check: If only this were true! Instead, Web shoppers have come to rely on generous return policies for ill-fitting items.
No. 4: Digital Documents
“Clients will expect their lawyers, dentists, accountants and other professionals to be able to schedule appointments and exchange documents electronically.”
Reality Check: This is beginning to happen. Microsoft is pushing for digital documents with its Health Vault technology.
No. 5: Online Information Sharing
“If you want to buy a refrigerator, you will look for the electronic bulletin boards containing formal and informal reviews.”
Reality Check: On the money. The Web has quickly evolved into a treasure trove of product reviews.
No. 6: E-Books
“Ultimately, incremental improvements in computer and screen technology will give us a lightweight, universal electronic book, or “e-book.”
Reality Check: Yes, Amazon’s Kindle
No. 7: Ad Targeting
“A middle-aged executive and her husband might see an advertisement for a retirement property at the beginning of an episode of Home Improvement, while the young couple next door might see a family vacation advertisement at the opening of the same show.”
Reality Check: Getting close. Microsoft in June acquired Navic, which sells this exact type of TV ad-targeting technology. Google is working on similar technology.
No. 8: Online Voting
“Voters will be able to cast their ballots from home on their wallet PCs with less risk of miscounts or fraud.”
Reality Check: Hanging chads plagued the 2000 presidential elections, but snafus and fraud fears have thwarted attempts to digitize voting systems.
No. 9: Multitasking Devices
“Your misplaced or stolen camera will send you a message telling [you] exactly where it is, even if it’s in a different city. You’ll be able to answer your apartment intercom from your office, or answer any mail from your home.”
Reality Check: Flip it around–the things on which you send messages (phones) now come with cameras.
No. 10: Digital Free Ride
“We will have to be extremely careful to make sure the upcoming highway doesn’t become a pirate’s paradise.”
Reality Check: The Internet has done just that, leaving software companies, including Microsoft, and Hollywood’s finest with lots of nonpaying (though probably happy) customers.
THE THINGS WE CAN LEARN FROM HIM
5. Geeks can be businessmen, too
Before Bill Gates, computer programmers were mostly considered to be a necessary evil for businesses. They were stereotyped as misanthropic weirdos that you stick in dark corners in the back office. However, Gates, became the most successful businessman on earth — if you judge business success by profits — and almost singlehandedly transformed the term “geek” from an insult to a badge of honor in the process.
4. You don’t have to be first to win
Gates and Microsoft rarely got to the party first with new technologies and innovations, but they were simply better at bringing technology products to the masses than anyone else in the industry. Internet Explorer is the most famous example, but Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel are also great examples. Microsoft was merely better at executing. It didn’t hurt that Microsoft often had the most resources, but Gates and Co. showed over and over again that they knew how to best take advantage of those resources.
3. Computing will spread everywhere
In the 1980s when the computer was still mostly a novelty, Gates expressed his vision that there would one day be “a computer on every desk and in every home.”
That vision has nearly become a reality in the U.S. and it’s in the process of coming to fruition across the globe. Plus, Gates’ vision of the computing experience has continued to inspire the industry in general as well as Microsoft’s product plans — from the smartphone to the Tablet PC to speech recognition to the touch-based interface.
2. Arrogance breeds failure
In the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, the Bill Gates character says to Steve Ballmer, “Success is a menace. It fools smart people into thinking that they can’t lose.” He was referring to IBM and the fact that it let Microsoft sneak in and steal the thunder in the launch of the PC. A decade later, Microsoft’s own success and arrogance led to its anti-trust defeat to the U.S. government. But Microsoft also remained humble and paranoid enough to always be on the lookout for the next small company that might do to it what it had done to IBM. Some of the most popular targets in its cross hairs: Apple, Netscape, Linux, and Google.
1. Software matters
The one message that Bill Gates spent his career reiterating was that software matters. Gates and Microsoft always believed in the magic of software to create amazing digital experiences. When “Micros-Soft” (as it was originally known) first launched in the 1970s, the computer business was all about the hardware. It was Gates and his vision of what people could do with computers that moved software to the center of the computing experience.
Whether or not you are a fan of Bill Gates, it is impossible to deny the impact he has made on the spread of computer technology across the planet during the past three decades. Since Friday was Gates’ last day as a full-time Microsoft employee, this is the perfect time to look back at five of the most important lessons we’ve learned from the meteoric, tumultuous, and lucrative career of the world’s most famous software engineer.
Best Of Luck.
