The Shocking Secret Behind Bill Gates’s Success Is Finally Revealed
KEY STATISTICS: (Date of Analysis: October 30th, 2013)
Full Name: William Henry “Bill” Gates III
NET WORTH: $72 Billion (2013)
Date of Birth: October 28, 1955 (age 58) in Seattle, WA, USA
Current Residence: Medina, WA, USA
Parents: William H. Gates, Sr and Mary Maxwell Gates
Education: Harvard University (dropped out)
Occupation: Chairman of Microsoft Inc, Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CEO of Cascade Investments, Chairman of Corbis
Family Life: Married to Melinda Gates (1994-present). 3 Children: Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe
QUICK SUMMARY:
Gates was born in Seattle Washington to William H. Gates, Sr a prominent lawyer and Mary Maxwell Gates a businesswoman. Growing up in a very well to do family Gates was always encouraged to compete and win. At the age of 13, in 1968, Bill Gates was enrolled in the Lakeside School, an exclusive preparatory school where he fell in love with computers and programming.
Due to Lakeside’s prominent status and high level industry connections Bill Gates and a few other students were able to gain access to terminal and computer time available only to large institutions and corporations at the time. From that point on Bill could not be pulled away from programming and within a short time have developed his first game “tic-tac-toe”. Various corporate gigs followed. Even at his young age Bill Gates was already at the forefront of the computer revolution that was about to come.
In 1973, Bill Gates graduated from Lakeside with SAT of 1590 out of 1600 (indicating high level of intelligence) and enrolled at Harvard University. In his first two years at Harvard, Bill Gates showed further brilliance when working in the computer field. However, in his sophomore year Bill and his friend Paul Allen have decided to drop out to pursue their dream of building a software company. Both of his parents were supportive of the decision.
Working on various things in between, the duo registered “Microsoft” as a business in 1976. During yearly years, all employees had broad responsibilities. While Gates oversaw business details, in the first five years he was also personally reviewing every line of code the company was creating. In 1980 Microsoft worked closely with IBM to develop an operating system. Showing his brilliance once again Gates structured a deal to keep copyrights for the software while licensing it to an IBM. This was done on a hunch that the rest of the industry will use his software as well. He was, of course, right.
In 1985 Microsoft released its first version of Microsoft Windows and through various steps (and major blunders by the competitors) were able to essentially monopolize worldwide operating system market, making Bill Gates the richest man in the world in the process.
FUN FACTS ABOUT BILL GATES:
- Bill Gates intends to leave less than $10M for each if his three children “so they can make their own way” and that the family mostly drives a minivan when all going somewhere.
- Bill Gates continued to fly coach until 1997, at which point his net worth was $36 billion.
- Bill Gates has saved over five million lives by “bringing vaccines and improved healthcare to children internationally”.
- The generic silhouette outline placeholder picture in Microsoft Outlook 2010 is actually Bill Gates’ mug shot.
- Steve Jobs accused Bill Gates of stealing from Apple, Gates said, “Well, Steve, I think there’s more than one way of looking at it. I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it.”
BILL GATES QUOTES:
“I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.”
“Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.“
“Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.“
DIFFICULT TIMES AND OVERCOMING PROBLEMS:
Bill Gates’s and Paul Allen’s first company, Traf-O-Data (a device which could read traffic tapes and process the data) failed miserably. It was reported that their product wouldn’t even work. Did that stop them? Not a bit. They have looked into their failure and moved on. They went on to form Microsoft within a short period of time and the rest of history. Many will look at Bill Gates and say that the guy has never failed in his life, yet they would be wrong.
The first business failure clearly positioned them for future success, delivered a number of lessons only a failure could teach and have prepared both Gates and Allen for success at Microsoft. Then there was the battle with the Justice Department and Antitrust charges that were brought against Microsoft in 1998. It was a difficult time for both Gates and Microsoft and under certain circumstances the lawsuit could have destroyed Microsoft. Yet, through a serious of moves and sheer perseverance, Gates was able to overcome that challenge as well. He fought vigorously to defend his company and succeeded.
PERSONAL CHARACTER TRAITS:
“I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one”. – Bill Gates.
- Aggressive: From 1975 to 2006, Gates aggressively grew the company’s product range and grew the company from nothing into one of the largest corporations in the world.
- Distant: Industry insiders indicate that Bill Gates is very hard to reach and is notorious for not returning phone calls.
- Extremely Competitive: Numerous people have indicated that Bill Gates is extremely competitive. Confirmed by Microsoft’s success, there is also anecdotal evidence that Bill would study games (card, board, etc..) that he was losing in order to beat his opponents the next time they would meet.
- Demanding: Numerous Microsoft’s senior managers and program managers share first hand experiences of Bill Gates becoming verbally combative, berating managers for unsound business strategies or product shortcomings.
- Straight Shooter: Gates is known for interrupting presentations with such comments as, “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!” and, “Why don’t you just give up your options and join the Peace Corps?
SUCCESS ANALYSIS:
There is no doubt that Bill Gates is extremely intelligent and hard working. Yet, there are numerous hidden facts that have led to his amazing success. Here they are…..
Being Born To A Wealthy Family: Without affluence he would be unable to go to Lakeside and gain access to the computers or programming at a young age. This early access to computers (when no one else had it) played a major part in his success. Without it, he would be unable to become an expert computer programmer by the age of 18.
Perfect Timing: Being born in 1958. If he would have been born just +/- 5 years, he would have lost the early window of computer revolution and his life would have taken him on a different path. Still successful, but unlikely to be as rich as he is today.
Competitive Edge: Being pushed by his parents from the very young age to be successful and to win played a significant role in his success. He always wanted to win and there was no rest until Microsoft was #1.
Supportive Family: Being supported by his parents when he decided to quit college. They could have always said NO and steered Bill towards a law degree or an MBA, closing his computer revolution window of opportunity forever.
Working Hard: In early days of Microsoft and for at least 10 years Bill Gates worked 7 days a week, putting in 80-120 hours per week. Not many human beings on this earth can sustain this kind of a schedule. He simply overworked every other competitor and grinded them under into the ground.
Winning At Any Cost: Bill is highly competitive. For him there is only two possible outcomes. Death or victory. He will work day and night, study, model and do whatever it is he believes he needs to do in order to win.
Concentrating On A Specific Area: By the time Bill Gates was 18 he has already spent well over 10,000 hours perfecting his programming and computer skills. He was an expect. He was already decades ahead of most of his peers.
Being A Demanding Asshole: I know the type because I am one. Many people don’t understand this but Bill Gates could have taken his foot of the gas by 1986. He was already a Billionaire by that point. But he didn’t.
Why?
Because for him it is not about the money. His personal preferences prove that clearly. For him it was always about building the best company in the world and changing lives. He was on the mission and no one would stop him. He knew that in order to accomplish that he had to work tirelessly to improve every little aspect of his company. He was running scared 100% of the time. He had no patience for people who wanted to coast. He wanted things done then and there. In the best humanly possible way.
He knew that anything less than that would subtract from the mission of his company and his life. It was always personal. He wanted to win and he would do anything in his power to get it done. No walls could contain him and he would not take no for an answer. He was an unstoppable force. That is the true secret to his success.
CONCLUSION:
The circumstantial points above are certainly important, yet they are not everything. Yes, he was at the right place, at the right time and from the right neighborhood, but he also worked like a madman in order to succeed.
I know that Bill Gates looks like this nice nerdy guy who got lucky. Yet, he is anything but that. He is one of the toughest competitors on the face of this earth. His net worth clearly proves that. If you stand in his way he will not hesitate for a second to cut your head off, drink all of your blood and take all of your money. He only has one gear, to win / to grow / to succeed. Anything else is unacceptable to him.
So, how can you replicate his success? While you can’t control some of the factors above, you can definitely implement the following points.
- Work Hard: If you want to perform at this level you must forget about working 8 hours a day. The chances of you being successful on that schedule are slim to none. Instead, 12-16 hour work days should become your norm.
- Become A Competitor: You must win at everything. Even if you win at finishing the dinner first. It is all part of developing this quality in yourself. Just set your mind that you must win at everything you do and soon that feeling will become a part of your life.
- Win At Any Cost: Do what you need to do in order to win. For as long as you don’t hurt others or yourself in the process.
- Concentrate On A Specific Area: Become an expert in something that will bring you success, fame and fortune. Spend as much time as possible on perfecting your skills. Forget about everything else.
- Become A Demanding Asshole: You have to be if you want success. Most people just want to get by. You must kick their ass if you want them to help you get there. You can become nice again after your first billion.
Personal Note:
No matter what your personal opinion is, I believe Bill Gates is by far the best human being living on the face of the earth right now. His personal shortcomings aside, he is directly tied to saving over 5 Million lives through his Gates Foundation. While the Pope and Dalai Lama run their mouth Bill Gates is investing most of his fortune towards betterment of humanity. While world leaders play “Liberation & Freedom” by killing tens of thousands of innocent people each year, Bill Gates has been able to convince his billionaire friends to put a foundation together whose sole purpose it is to help humanity.
As such, I salute you Bill Gates. We need more people like you.
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