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“BE a Lifelong LEARNER!” | Bill Gates (@BillGates) | Top 10 Rules


when I was going up IBM was the monolith
and it was always okay are we gonna beat
him are we gonna join him those bastards
this is a phenomenal time to be a
curious person the information that’s
out there you know I have a my my
biggest problem is that I stay up too
late cuz I’m reading and then I’m a
little bit tired the next day my thing
was that I just love doing software I
loved hiring people and I was stunned
when it ended up being so valuable need
motivation work a cocktail with a rave
nation what’s that belief nation it’s
heaven my one word is believe and I
believe in you I believe you have
Michael Jordan level talent at something
and I want you to find it embrace it and
use it to make a difference so let’s get
your motivation to attend and get you
believing in you grab a snack and chew
in today’s lessons for men who went from
dropping out of Harvard to starting a
little company called Microsoft to
becoming one of the richest men on the
planet is Bill Gates and here’s my take
on his top ten rules a success vol 3
okay let’s kick it off with rule number
one make it happen
the idea that computers were going to be
a change agent and I was lucky enough to
meet Paul Allen and early on we
brainstormed about this I did that ship
and the tube changed the rules I mean
most things don’t get a million times
better not
you know engine efficiency or you know
most things have theoretical minimums
computation is something that we’re not
even close to the theoretical minimum
and yet we’ve improved so much so seeing
that that was going to come and weirdly
that most people didn’t see that was
going to come so you know even people at
IBM were still thinking in terms of big
computers you know now all the software
and service driven companies are worth
even more than IBM when I was going up
IBM was the monolith and it was always
okay are we gonna beat him are we gonna
join him those bastards
actually that we’re very nice people but
we always thought of them and they they
sort of stood for these big computers
that only big companies and governments
could get the benefit for so actually we
played off of that to have this power to
the people personal computing type thing
of course now we’re a big company and
somebody can play off of us the idea
that a young person would start a
company here is as a super nice thing
because although people at first are
skeptical as soon as they realize their
normal model of what I knew and what I
could do that I didn’t fit that normal
model then they assumed I knew way more
than I did and I could solve all sorts
of problems I had no clue you know how
to solve but you know it was nice that
people were kind of a dog that we built
this company and done these things from
a young age so I think the culture of
America that you know almost the
American Dream type success story worked
out rule number two be a learner it’s an
incredible time to be a learner I
remember when I was young and I had the
world but with just one of Warren’s
products and it was very good but yeah I
always felt like I want to get into this
more depth I understand of better today
the videos that are on
and the courses that you can buy with
the very best professors it’s phenomenal
you know take a subject like weather or
climate change or what’s going on in
economics what’s known what’s not known
now with the foundation a lot of what I
need to learn it’s about biology making
vaccines and what’s going on with these
these various diseases this is a
phenomenal time to be a curious person
the information that’s out there you
know I have a my my biggest problem is
that I stay up too late cuz I’m reading
and then I’m a little bit tired the next
day rule number three my personal
favorite find your obsession computers
when I was young were super expensive
and my friend Paul Allen and I actually
snuck into places at the University of
Washington where they had computers that
weren’t being used at night and so we
were fascinated by what the computer
could do but very few people were
getting exposure we had to go out of our
way and we were lucky that we did it all
and so then when the idea of moving the
computer onto a chip that Intel would
make and that would make the computer
literally millions of times cheaper than
the ones we were using so both more
powerful and available to people on a
personal level then the idea of okay it
would be very different the software you
needed the way the industry would work
we were super lucky to be there when
that was happening so what did your
family think did they say there’s
something wrong with this young man he
wants to just do computers they knew I
was obsessed with computers that I would
skip athletics that I’d go in overnight
that I you know leave the house
sometimes when they prefer I wouldn’t go
work at night on these things and so it
was kind of considered a little strange
and the big moment was when I said
instead of going to part of my senior
year that I wanted to go work for
company writing software so they were
great about allowing that to be my hobby
rule number four learned to delegate
yeah if you want to have impact
usually delegations important although
you know individual contributors in
terms of inventing a drug or a new
approach to things that’s phenomenal
so when Microsoft first got started I
wrote most of code and everybody else’s
code I read and kind of rewrote and that
got us up to ten people and then I had
to say to myself okay we were gonna ship
code that I didn’t edit and that was
hard for me but you know I kind of got
over that then I still said okay I’m
gonna interview everyone and I mean at
least look at samples of their code well
that got us up to about 40 people and
that was at a point where I had sold way
more software than we could write
because everybody was so impressed and I
thought well I need to keep enough
collect enough money to you know keep
hiring all these people but the demand
was so high that you know we were
actually falling behind that’s when I
hired Steve and Steve figured out a how
to control what promises I made to
people and be how to hire lots of people
and good really good people and create
organizations and teams so I delegated
to Steve that and he was constantly
saying to me okay we’re gonna hire
programmers that you’ve never met and
I’d say no or not and then he would show
me numerically that the constraint
wasn’t going to work you know so then I
said okay then I would you know know all
the managers of the people and so over
time and of course you know I could say
the quality per person was falling
according to me but you know large
problems if you want to know right the
most popular office productivity
software that one person capsule oohed
li can’t do that you can write pretty
code so everyone has to decide what
scale of organization they want to work
in eventually you know my role was very
much as a leader and a reviewer of
managers but the top people and I hired
some super experienced people I would
make sure they were pursuing a common
vision and they were well coordinated
but in terms of a lot of management
stuff they were way better than I was
and I had to have the framework to know
what mix of skills that we needed and
you know when they were working well
enough together but a lot of you know my
value Adam was picking say to do graphic
user interface or to do an integrated
office type thing or to go global and
not use agents to have Microsoft be
present all over the world and so yeah
picking what you’re good at and how you
find the other people to fill in those
things that’s super important and most
founders don’t aren’t able to scale that
up and kind of give up the hands-on
things that they used to get a lot of
pleasure and comfort from rule number
five have curiosity I find the world and
just such an interesting place so we
like to compare notes on it when we
compare notes we have a lot of fun doing
it one of the things that happened in I
bill was it I guess your dad at the
dinner said you know what does it use
what’s been the most important quality
for you and you found out that you and
Warren had the same word yeah I think
curiosity which Warren mentioned is a an
amazing thing where you try and predict
what’s going to happen and then when it
doesn’t you sort of think well you know
that drug didn’t get invented that stock
could go up that approach wasn’t popular
what’s what is it about my model of the
world that’s wrong you know who could I
talk to what could I read
and the things that have happened since
1991 mostly good things have been
amazing and just you know so much fun to
talk about you know so you know it we
read the news and we think God what did
Warren think about that rule number six
don’t focus on the money so you are here
with your daughter who is 21 right and
you were 21 when you became a
billionaire is that right
almost yeah all right so I round that
age you went you were like the youngest
person to become a billionaire is that
right yeah yeah in terms of my own
earning it on my own yeah right okay so
what’s the most important thing yeah so
did you when you were a kid did you did
you care about money or you just cared
about technology and that’s it just
happened mostly I loved software I do
remember at the private school I went to
there were other kids whose families
were better off like they had a porch or
something but it wasn’t that that big of
a deal my thing was that I just love
doing software I loved hiring people and
I was stunned when it ended up being so
valuable really yeah you it surprised
you yeah because I always had to be
careful that we wouldn’t hire too many
people I was always worried because I
was people who work for me or older than
me and they had kids and I always
thought well what if we don’t get paid
will I be able to meet the payroll so I
was always very conservative about the
finances and then when we did go public
what was I thirty by then then I was
kind of stunned at what it multiplied
out to rule number seven solve problems
my question to you is if you suddenly
find yourself to be say a sophomore in
college at Harvard what do you think you
would study and how do you think you’d
spend your time engaging activities well
the thing that you’re likely to be
world-class at is whatever you obsessed
over from say age 12 to 18 you know in
my case it was writing software where I
would think I was good and then I would
meet somebody who would tell me I wasn’t
and I would look at their code and I
went through four sort of come up and
says
of oh that’s what a really good
programmer looks like and part of the
reason I worship digital equipment was
eventually it was a couple of their very
best programmers who came and shared
with me how they thought about how they
did thing and I had studied their code
and and that and there there were
several people who are Sookie am I doing
that so today I would go into you know
software which today that means going
into artificial intelligence you know
computers still can’t read they they
cannot take a book of information and
say pass an AP test on that book and
that’s a solvable problem but it’s a
knowledge representation problem and you
know I’ve always wanted to solve that
problem I’m jealous that maybe one of
you gets to work on that you know I’m
likely to go back and be hands-on in
that in that way but it’s the juiciest
problem ever I’ve thought about it for a
long time so I I would go into AI will
number eight invest in good friendships
I’m curious about your insight related
to relationships yes some friends do
bring out the best in you and and so
those it’s good to invest in those
friendships I and you know some friends
challenge you about things you’re doing
and that you know that level of intimacy
is great I wouldn’t say that I’m you
know I was so obsessed with work I
didn’t invest I’d say in my 20s and 30s
as much as I should have
it’s really through Melinda and seen you
know other people I realize okay that is
you know it’s really worth the
investment to have those people as
you’re always there to help them and
vice versa rule number nine control your
time
I also remember Warren showing me his
calendar and I love you know I had every
minute packed and I thought that was the
only way you could do things and you
there’s nothing on that there’s nothing
on this is the week of April of which
not to crowd yourself too much and give
yourself time you read and think and
write you control your time and that
sitting and thinking I may be a much
higher priority than a normal CEO who
you know there’s all this demand and you
feel like you need to go and see all
these people it’s not a proxy of your
seriousness that you’ve filmed every
minute in your schedule once your time
yeah that’s the only thing you can’t buy
I mean I buy anything I want basically
but I can’t buy time and so to have time
is the most precious thing you can have
it I better be careful okay there’s no
way I will be able to buy more time and
rule number 10 the last one before a
very special bonus clip is have fun all
right we’re gonna test your knowledge of
some everyday items that you get at the
supermarket when’s the last time that
you have been at a supermarket a long
time ago okay
all right this will be interesting all
right if you can guess three out of the
five products within a dollar of each
one the price the audience will get
something okay
[Applause]
if you get all of them we’ll pay off
your children’s student loans danger
there yeah all right which is gonna be
our prize model and here we go
there is rice-a-roni right there the San
Francisco treat of course how much do
you think
rice-a-roni would be within a dollar hmm
$5 okay let’s I didn’t seem like that
let’s see oh look what a bargain I’ll
take five I know all right
okay odd pods you’ve been hearing a lot
about those lately what do you think
four dollars no no they want they want
me to go higher yeah let’s go ten ten
ten dollars all right nineteen dollars
it’s expensive to do laundry I’ll take a
half it’s a very costly okay now very
important it’s my best choice a chance
really one yeah cuz you floss absolutely
yeah
i floss as well is very important to
keep your gums and good health all right
that’s floss how much would you say that
floss I would say four dollars oh look
at you
now I’ve got a really special bonus Bill
Gates tip around how to change the world
that I think you’re really gonna enjoy
but before that I want to know what did
you learn from this video what was the
single takeaway that you’re going to
apply somehow to your life your business
put it down the comments below when you
write it down you’re much more likely to
actually take action on it so leave it
in the comments thank you guys so much
for watching I believe in you I hope we
continue to believe in yourself and
whatever your one where it is much love
I’ll see you soon and enjoy the bonus
you know as Microsoft was becoming super
successful the idea of okay what am I
going to do with this money you know I
could spend a little bit on myself you
know and I could give some to kids and
you know make sure they got a good
education whatever but it’s a percentage
even the max and under those two outlets
you know became tiny and so then it was
ok what do philanthropist do and
studying Rockefeller and all sorts of
people who done all that stuff I thought
oh well this is in pristine are there
research topics that aren’t getting
enough money and that’s where I started
to learn about global health and
realized that like malaria nobody was
putting any money into malaria the US
Army historically had put money in
because troops were exposed to malaria
but then they got these drugs
prophylactic drugs like math laQuan
Laurium larium ah and so they didn’t
need to put him for money into it and so
our first 30 million we became the
biggest funder in a disease that kills a
million children a year at that at that
time we’re down to 400,000 now so it was
a progression you know meeting working
with Paul Allen and high school working
with Steve Ballmer at Microsoft then
meeting and marrying Melinda each of
those you know were very very important
in getting my mind you know shaping
whatever abilities I have poured
something worthwhile the most important
work ever if you have to think of one
word that’s most important to you or
that sums you Apple so it would be to
like a little beacon pay believe nation
if you want to know what the most
important one word is for Tony Robbins
Gary Vaynerchuk Oprah Winfrey will.i.am
and Howard Schultz I have a very special
secret video for you check the
description for details [Music]
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