He consistently ranks in the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest people. He's one of the best known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. He's the second most generous philanthropist in America, having given over twenty-eight billion dollars to charity. He's Bill Gates, and here are his top ten rules for success. When I started Microsoft, I didn't think of it as all that risky. I mean, I was so excited about what we were doing. It's true (that) I could have gone bankrupt. uh, but, I had a set of skills that were highly employable, and, in fact, my parents were still willing to let me go back to Harvard and finish my education if I wanted to. You've always got a job with me, Bill. (laughter) And, the only, the thing that was scary to me, wasn't quitting and starting the company, it was when I started hiring my friends, and they expected to be paid. uh...(laughter)...and then we had customers who went bankrupt, customers that I counted on to come through, and so then I, I got this incredibly conservative approach that I wanted to have enough money in the bank to pay a year's worth of payroll, uh, even if we didn't get any payments coming in and I'm almost, uh, true to that the whole time, we have about ten billion now, which is pretty much enough for the next year. Uh...(laughter) Uh....(laughter) A-anyway, you know, I...if you're going to start a company, it takes so much energy, that, you know, you'd...you'd better overcome your, your feeling of risk. I donāt think that you necessarily, if youāre gonna start a company, should do it at the start of your career. I think thereās a lot to be said for working for a company learning how they do things, If youāre young, itās hard to go and lease premises. They made that hard for me. You couldnāt run a car when you were under 25 at the time, so I was always taking taxis to go see customers. People would say, āwell weāre gonna go have a discussion in the barā. Well, I couldnāt go to the bar. Thatās fun ācause Iāll tell you, when people are first sceptical and they go āthis kid doesnāt know anythingā, then when you show them youāve really got a good product and you know something, they actually tend to go overboard and they think āwowā¦they know a lot. Letās really do an incredible amount with these peopleā. So our youth, at least in this country, was a huge asset for us once we reached a certain threshold. It is hard to hire older people because, theyāll be a little bit conservative about whether they should come and take the risk. It took 3 or 4 years first before we could go out into the normal employment pool. But those problems that come from starting a firm, you better think of those as part of the pleasure, part of the challenge that is part of the excitement. I want to thank Harvard for this honour. Iāll be changing my job next year, and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume. I applaud the graduates for taking a much more direct route to your degrees. From my part, Iām just happy that the Crimson called me, āHarvard's most successful dropoutā. I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class. I did the best of everyone who failed. But I also want to be recognised as the guy who got Steve Ballmer to drop out of business school. Iām a bad influence. That's why I was invited to speak at your graduation. If Iād spoken at your orientationā¦fewer of you might be here today. Iām in meetings a lot. My calendar gets very full with those and then at night after the kids have gone to bed, Iām on email a great deal. I get messages during the day, thatās my chance to give long responses. Then over the weekend, I send a lot of mail as well. I take 2 weeks a year to just go off and read and think. Where Iām not interrupted by work or anything else. Iām just solidly trying to think about the future and, people get to send me things to read as part of that so-called āthink weekā. So itās a nice mix of things. About 25% of the time that Iām out, travelling around, meeting with customers: Europe, Asia. That sort of helps me think, do we have the right priorities? What are people responding well to? What will they like to see us do better? Hello, I'm Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft. In this video, youāre going to see the future. Windows. Microsoft first came up with the Windows concept back in 1983. Today the leading software users have switched into the Windows environment. Itās really incredible how quickly our powerful applications like Word and Excel and PowerPoint have been adopted. Itās not just Microsoft applications, even companies like WordPerfect and Lotus, have now come out with Windows applications. Every week we see new innovative work. Itās really attracting all the innovation in the industry. We predicted this a long time ago and now itās the future. The key point there is, youāve got to enjoy what you do every day and for me, thatās working with various smart people, itās working on new problems. Every time we think, āhey, weāve had a little bit of successā, weāre pretty careful not to dwell on it too much because the bar gets raised. I love Bridge. Bridge helps you think. Itās a game you can play your entire life and keep getting better and better I think anybody whoās good at Bridge, is going to degrade a lot of things so, I really encourage people to get involved and I want to thank the people whoāve put things together for juniors. Theyāll be thanking you the rest of their life ācause bridge is such a great sport. Iāve talked to my dad, Iāve talked to Warren, Iāve talked to my wife Melinda so, I have enough people that know me and actually know where my judgement is not itās strongest. Where I get over excited about something or forget to think about something and so, Theyāre good at correcting, particularly Melinda, good at correcting whatever those blind spots are. I think itās good to encourage your friends and advisors to really give them that license. I can go to a party and forget to say hello to various people or something. - Thatās a very minor example of my blindspots.
- Not to the hostess. - Melinda would help me do that.
- Yeah, she would. A small number of people that you can turn to on certain key things is a great asset. My best business decisions really have to do with picking people. Deciding to go into partnership with Paul Allen is probably at the top of the list then subsequently, hiring a friend, Steve Ballmer and having somebody who you totally trust, whoās totally committed, who shares your vision and yet has a little bit different set of skills and also acts as a check on you. Some of the ideas you come up with, you run by them because you know theyāre going to say, āwait a minute. Have you thought about this and that?ā The benefit of sparking off of somebody whose got that kind of brilliance, itās not only made it fun, but itās really led to a lot of success. So, picking a partner is crucial. I had one habit that I developed when I was at college. It was actually a very bad habit, which was, I liked to show people that I didnāt do any work and I didnāt go to classes and I didnāt care. Then at the very last minute, like two days before the test, Iād get serious about it. People thought that was funny. That was my positioning: the guy who did nothing until the last minute. Then when I went into business, that was a really bad habit. It took me a couple of years to get over that. Nobody praised me because I would do things at the last minute. I tried to reverse to students that I didnāt think that highly of, who were always organised and had things done on time. - Iām still working on it but procrastination is not a good habit.
- Bill can change clothes in the carā¦ So Iām gonna challenge Bill Gates, my partner on Facebook Sheryl Sandberg and Netflixās founder and CEO Reed Hastings. Iām glad to give to ALS. Itās a great cause. But I want to accept this challenge. I want to do it better than itās been done. Been working on this. Got this design. There we go. Itās gonna be great. Iām here to join the people bringing attention to Lou Gehrig's disease by taking the ALS ice bucket challenge. Iām gonna challenge 3 more people. Elon Musk, Ryan Seacrest and Chris Anderson of Ted, consider yourself challenged. You have 24 hours. Good luck. #People let me tell you ābout my best friend. Heās a warm-hearted person whoāll love me to the end.# #People let me tell you ābout my best friend. Heās the one boy, cuddly toy, my up, my down, my pride and joy.# #People let me tell you ābout him, heās so much fun. Whether weāre talking man to manā¦# #ā¦or whether weāre talking son to son ācause heās my best friend.# Is it true that you can leap over a chair from a standing position? It depends on the size of the chair. Iāll cheat a little bit. #What is love?# By the way, I believe in winners and losers and especially the freedom to fail. - Who him? Who him? Me?
- Who him? Who him? What? #I donāt know when youāre not thereā¦# - No way!
- #What is love? Baby donāt hurt meā¦# Oh, behave. Thank you so much for watching. I made this video because a bunch of you guys were asking me to. So if thereās a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave in the comments below and Iāll see what I can do. Iām also curious to know what you think of Bill Gates as an entrepreneur and, which of the ten rules most resonates with you. Leave it below in the comments and Iām gonna join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe and Iāll see you soon.
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