I didn’t think of it as all that risky I
mean I was so excited about what we were
doing
it’s true I could have gone bankrupt but
you know 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
Maybelle and the only the thing that was
scary to me wasn’t quitting and starting
the company it was when I started hiring
and then we had customers who went
bankrupt customers that I’d counted on
to come through and so then I got this
incredibly conservative approach that I
wanted to have enough money in the bank
to pay a year’s worth of payroll even if
we didn’t get in heat any payments
coming in and I’m almost true to that
the whole time we have about ten billion
now which is pretty much enough for the
next year anyway you know I if you’re
gonna start a company it takes so much
energy that you know you it better
overcome your your feeling of risk I
don’t think that you necessarily if
you’re gonna start a company should do
it at the start of your career I think
there’s a lot to be said for working for
a company learning how they do things
you know if you’re young it’s hard to go
lease premises they made that hard for
me you couldn’t rent a car when you were
under 25 at the time so I was always
taking taxis to go see customers and
people would you know people say well
we’re gonna go have a discussion in the
and you know not fun because i’ll tell
you when people are first skeptical and
then go this kid doesn’t know anything
then when you show them you’ve really
got a good product you know something
they actually tend to go overboard and
they think whoa
you know they know a lot let’s really do
an incredible amount of these people so
our youth at least in this country was a
huge asset for us once we reached a
certain threshold it is hard it’s hard
to hire old older people because they’ll
be a little bit conservative about
whether they should come in and take the
risk and it took three or four years
before we could go out into the normal
sort of employment pool but those those
problems that come with starting the
firm you better think of those as as
part of the the pleasure part of the the
challenge that that is part of the
excitement my calendar gets very full
with those and then at night after the
kids have gone to bed I’m on email a
great deal I get messages during the day
that’s my chance to give long responses
and then over the weekend I send a lot
of mail as well as well I take two weeks
a year to just go off and read and think
where I’m not interrupted by work or
anything else I’m just solidly trying to
think about the future and people get to
send me things to read as part of that
so-called think week so it’s nice mix of
things about 25% of the time that I’m
out traveling around meeting with
customers Europe Asia and that sort of
helps me think okay do we have the right
priorities what what are people
responding well to and what would they
they like to see us do better I’m Bill
Gates chairman of Microsoft in this
video you’re going to see the future
Windows Microsoft first came up with the
windows concept back in 1983
and today the leading software users
have switched into the Windows
environment it’s really incredible how
quickly our powerful applications like
Word and Excel and PowerPoint have been
adopted it’s not just Microsoft
applications even companies like
WordPerfect and Lotus have now come out
with Windows applications and every week
we see new innovative work it’s really
attracting all the innovation in the
industry we predicted this a long time
ago and now it’s the future I talked to
my dad I talked to Warren I talked to my
wife Melinda so I I have enough people
that know me and actually know where my
judgment isn’t its strongest where I
might get overexcited about something or
you know forget to think about something
and so they’re good at correcting
particular Melinda good at correcting
whatever those blind spots are and I
think it’s good to encourage your
friends and advisers to really give them
that license you know I can go to a
party and forget to say hello to various
people or something that’s a very minor
example of my clients a small number of
people that you can turn to on on
certain key things is a great great
asset there is you’ve got to enjoy what
you do every day
and for me that’s working with very
smart people it’s working on new
problems you know every time we think
hey we’ve had a little bit of success
we’re pretty careful not to dwell on it
too much because the bar gets raised you
find an idea that requires three or four
years of improvement and patience and
really sticking with it that we’re very
good at that take Windows which we bet
our company on everybody who doubted
that would succeed IBM did not support
us in that it took longer than we
expected over four years before finally
graphical interface got popular and now
people take it for granted it’s part of
every personal computer and you just you
just expect it to be there that was one
of the grand successes of the company in
the same way we’re betting on the
internet that our tools there will be
popular and that a few of these content
plays that we’ve decided to get involved
in that the scale and and the users will
make those in the great business are you
happy which I get and what makes you
happiest well I’m very happy I I’m lucky
that I get to work on exactly the things
I want to I get to work with brilliant
people on interesting problems like
malaria tuberculosis and you know I’m
always learning always seen the progress
that we’re making that’s why I love to
come to India because there always is so
much progress I’ve got a great family
kids who are growing up very well I’m
you know healthy the tools I can use to
be curious that people I can meet you
know I can’t imagine changing places
with anyone my best business decisions
really have to do with picking people
and deciding to go into partnership with
Paul Allen is is probably at the top of
the list and then subsequently hiring a
friend Steve Ballmer and having somebody
who you totally trust who’s totally
committed who shares your vision and yet
he has a little bit different set of
skills and also acts as a check on you
you know some of the ideas you come up
with you run by them because you know
they’re gonna say hey wait a minute you
know have you thought about this and
that and just you know the the benefit
of sparking off of somebody who’s who’s
got that kind of brilliance it’s not
only made it fun but it’s really led to
a lot of success so picking picking a
partners is crucial
the thing that really drives me is
building software products that can help
people out that’s what I’ve been doing
for over 20 years that’s what I’ll be
doing the rest of my life
well it’s a very competitive business
and oh no absolutely when you have the
level of success that we’ve had when you
have a business that’s important as this
with this many competitors you’re going
to have people saying some nasty things
and so you have to learn a little bit
not to take it too personally and just
keep doing the same old thing you were
doing before we have to take your skills
and attack the new frontiers for example
graphical interface used to be outside
the operating system and so there were
many people doing those systems Windows
came out ahead there and now it comes
with the operating system likewise the
the browser is something that Netscape
looked at turning the browser into an
operating system and we looked at taking
our operating system in building the
browser in an integrated fashion well
certainly every product we do is
absolutely as capable as it can possibly
be you know there’s no there’s no
holding back we are the people at
Microsoft come into work every day
building the best products they can and
they’re very proud can you go out go
into schools and see how kids are using
this stuff going ask people about how
their jobs have changed because of the
personal computer you know we’re sitting
there listening to our customers saying
how they’d like to make things better so
we’re we do absolutely our best job and
in fact that’s why we’ve been successful
you know anybody who holds back in this
business isn’t gonna be around for long
because this is a business where you
always have to be moving at a very rapid
pace to Harvard and you’re dropped out
have you ever thought how your life
could be better off if you had gotten
your Harvard degree well I I’m a weird
dropout because I take college courses
all the time I love learning company
courses and things so I love being a
student
and there were smart people around and
you know they fed you and they gave you
these nice grades that made you feel
smart so I I feel it was unfortunate
that I didn’t get to stay there but I
don’t think I missed any knowledge
because you know whatever I needed to
learn I would I was still in a learning
mode we’ve competed against various
forms of eunuchs over the years and
Linux is a growing in popularity and
definitely a competitor has how
threatening a competitor well it’s a
competitor we take very seriously I
think you know part of Microsoft’s
success is that we don’t underestimate
the importance of the work that other
companies are doing and so we look out
we you know we think are there aspects
of that that that are best practices for
example online support some of the
community things that are done around
Linux or are done very well so you know
we’re we’re thinking about it making
sure that our innovation I will make
sure that our value in our leadership
stays in front first I met warren we
were talking about getting together and
doing something again he pulled out his
calendar and the pages were so blank and
I said wow you know you’ve managed to
avoid getting tied in to a lot of kind
of meaningless activity and you know
Warren said yeah you have to be good at
saying no and picking the things that
really make a difference and that’s one
of many things I’ve learned from warm
but that’s one of my favorites and I so
I can blame it on him whenever I’m
turning things down you have made a
significant contribution in the fight
against AIDS in Africa you have funded
to a large degree vaccines and vaccine
research give me a sense of where that’s
directed and which success you think
we’re making and and your own particular
interest in public health in the world
well this is a real passion for me so
I’ll give
succinct the answer people I think don’t
have a full awareness how four billion
of the six billion people on this planet
don’t have basic health needs met the
the death rate of infants the epidemic
infectious diseases that are just a way
of life in most the world don’t exist in
the in the developed world and yet the
research isn’t going on for the
medicines that would get rid of these
diseases even diseases like tuberculosis
where for a few hundred dollars lives
can be saved that’s not being done
vaccines aren’t being moved from the
rich world to the poor world AIDS is the
most extreme where the prevention
measures that could prevent this from
becoming a huge epidemic in countries
like India Nigerian many countries where
it’s not in huge percentages or ei or
two that you know the right things I
think are not being prioritized so the
foundation that my wife and I have is
have taken as its top priority these
world health issues the research getting
the vaccines out and it’s been
fascinating to learn about this and to
try and say that all these lives the
lives all over the world should be
treated with the same value that we
treat lives here in the in the rich
world so your but just to sum up in a
sense I mean the could you have learned
from your own involvement from funding
it in terms of more money than had ever
been applied is that it can make a
difference absolutely millions of lives
can be and should be saved through these
efforts and you know we we can make a
difference and we can encourage others
to get involved that was my last
question is that happening as you fund
these efforts are you I mean is it
becoming a kind of wedge that other
governments and other foundations and
other sources a following suit or
matching yeah we’ve seen a good start I
would say the vaccine fund we put
together
we put in 750 million now governments
have agreed to put up 500 million in
addition to that in the AIDS area some
of the things we’ve backed have been
able to attract additional money having
said that this is a cause that somehow
deserves more visibility because when
you talk to people about this and they
hear about malaria or AIDS they really
do care and they think their
government’s doing more and so you know
when I’m not working a lot of my
creativity is going into what could be
done to show people that their money
would be well spent it would make a
difference and you know try and make
sure that that world health gets gets
more priority than you can save life if
you ask people across the United States
is the future going to be better than
the past most say no my kids will be
worse off than I am they think
innovation won’t make the world better
for them of their children so who’s
right the people who say innovation will
create new possibilities and make the
word world better are the people who see
a trend toward inequality and a decline
in opportunity and don’t think
innovation will change that the
pessimists are wrong in my view but
they’re not crazy
if innovation is purely market driven
and we don’t focus on the big inequities
then we could have amazing advances and
inventions that leave the world even
more divided
we won’t improve public schools we won’t
cure malaria we won’t end poverty we
won’t develop the innovations poor
farmers need to grow food in a changing
climate if our optimism doesn’t address
the problems that affect so many of our
fellow human beings then our optimism
needs more empathy if empathy channels
our optimism we will see the poverty
and the disease and the poor schools we
will answer with our innovations and we
will surprise the pessimists over the
next generation you Stanford graduates
will lead a new wave of innovation which
problems will you decide to solve if
your world is wide you can create the
future we all want if your world is
narrow you may create the future the
pessimist fear I started learning in
sweet oh that if we’re going to make our
optimism matter to everyone and empower
people everywhere we have to see the
lives of those most in need if we have
optimism without empathy then it doesn’t
matter how much we master the secrets of
science we’re not really solving
problems we’re just working on puzzles I
think most of you have a broader
worldview than I had at your age you can
do better at this than I did if you put
your hearts and minds to it you can
surprise the pessimists we’re eager to
see it and one habit that I developed
when I when I was at college it was
actually a very bad habit which was I
like to show people that I didn’t do any
work and that I didn’t go to classes and
I didn’t care and then at the very last
minute like two days before the test I
get serious about it and and people
people thought that was funny you know
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 and it took me a couple years
to get over that nobody praised me
because I would do things at the last
minute and I tried to reverse to
students I’d actually I didn’t think
that highly of who were always organized
and had things done on time I’m I’m
still working on it but procrastination is not a good good habit
mean I was so excited about what we were
doing
it’s true I could have gone bankrupt but
you know 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
Maybelle and the only the thing that was
scary to me wasn’t quitting and starting
the company it was when I started hiring
and then we had customers who went
bankrupt customers that I’d counted on
to come through and so then I got this
incredibly conservative approach that I
wanted to have enough money in the bank
to pay a year’s worth of payroll even if
we didn’t get in heat any payments
coming in and I’m almost true to that
the whole time we have about ten billion
now which is pretty much enough for the
next year anyway you know I if you’re
gonna start a company it takes so much
energy that you know you it better
overcome your your feeling of risk I
don’t think that you necessarily if
you’re gonna start a company should do
it at the start of your career I think
there’s a lot to be said for working for
a company learning how they do things
you know if you’re young it’s hard to go
lease premises they made that hard for
me you couldn’t rent a car when you were
under 25 at the time so I was always
taking taxis to go see customers and
people would you know people say well
we’re gonna go have a discussion in the
and you know not fun because i’ll tell
you when people are first skeptical and
then go this kid doesn’t know anything
then when you show them you’ve really
got a good product you know something
they actually tend to go overboard and
they think whoa
you know they know a lot let’s really do
an incredible amount of these people so
our youth at least in this country was a
huge asset for us once we reached a
certain threshold it is hard it’s hard
to hire old older people because they’ll
be a little bit conservative about
whether they should come in and take the
risk and it took three or four years
before we could go out into the normal
sort of employment pool but those those
problems that come with starting the
firm you better think of those as as
part of the the pleasure part of the the
challenge that that is part of the
excitement my calendar gets very full
with those and then at night after the
kids have gone to bed I’m on email a
great deal I get messages during the day
that’s my chance to give long responses
and then over the weekend I send a lot
of mail as well as well I take two weeks
a year to just go off and read and think
where I’m not interrupted by work or
anything else I’m just solidly trying to
think about the future and people get to
send me things to read as part of that
so-called think week so it’s nice mix of
things about 25% of the time that I’m
out traveling around meeting with
customers Europe Asia and that sort of
helps me think okay do we have the right
priorities what what are people
responding well to and what would they
they like to see us do better I’m Bill
Gates chairman of Microsoft in this
video you’re going to see the future
Windows Microsoft first came up with the
windows concept back in 1983
and today the leading software users
have switched into the Windows
environment it’s really incredible how
quickly our powerful applications like
Word and Excel and PowerPoint have been
adopted it’s not just Microsoft
applications even companies like
WordPerfect and Lotus have now come out
with Windows applications and every week
we see new innovative work it’s really
attracting all the innovation in the
industry we predicted this a long time
ago and now it’s the future I talked to
my dad I talked to Warren I talked to my
wife Melinda so I I have enough people
that know me and actually know where my
judgment isn’t its strongest where I
might get overexcited about something or
you know forget to think about something
and so they’re good at correcting
particular Melinda good at correcting
whatever those blind spots are and I
think it’s good to encourage your
friends and advisers to really give them
that license you know I can go to a
party and forget to say hello to various
people or something that’s a very minor
example of my clients a small number of
people that you can turn to on on
certain key things is a great great
asset there is you’ve got to enjoy what
you do every day
and for me that’s working with very
smart people it’s working on new
problems you know every time we think
hey we’ve had a little bit of success
we’re pretty careful not to dwell on it
too much because the bar gets raised you
find an idea that requires three or four
years of improvement and patience and
really sticking with it that we’re very
good at that take Windows which we bet
our company on everybody who doubted
that would succeed IBM did not support
us in that it took longer than we
expected over four years before finally
graphical interface got popular and now
people take it for granted it’s part of
every personal computer and you just you
just expect it to be there that was one
of the grand successes of the company in
the same way we’re betting on the
internet that our tools there will be
popular and that a few of these content
plays that we’ve decided to get involved
in that the scale and and the users will
make those in the great business are you
happy which I get and what makes you
happiest well I’m very happy I I’m lucky
that I get to work on exactly the things
I want to I get to work with brilliant
people on interesting problems like
malaria tuberculosis and you know I’m
always learning always seen the progress
that we’re making that’s why I love to
come to India because there always is so
much progress I’ve got a great family
kids who are growing up very well I’m
you know healthy the tools I can use to
be curious that people I can meet you
know I can’t imagine changing places
with anyone my best business decisions
really have to do with picking people
and deciding to go into partnership with
Paul Allen is is probably at the top of
the list and then subsequently hiring a
friend Steve Ballmer and having somebody
who you totally trust who’s totally
committed who shares your vision and yet
he has a little bit different set of
skills and also acts as a check on you
you know some of the ideas you come up
with you run by them because you know
they’re gonna say hey wait a minute you
know have you thought about this and
that and just you know the the benefit
of sparking off of somebody who’s who’s
got that kind of brilliance it’s not
only made it fun but it’s really led to
a lot of success so picking picking a
partners is crucial
the thing that really drives me is
building software products that can help
people out that’s what I’ve been doing
for over 20 years that’s what I’ll be
doing the rest of my life
well it’s a very competitive business
and oh no absolutely when you have the
level of success that we’ve had when you
have a business that’s important as this
with this many competitors you’re going
to have people saying some nasty things
and so you have to learn a little bit
not to take it too personally and just
keep doing the same old thing you were
doing before we have to take your skills
and attack the new frontiers for example
graphical interface used to be outside
the operating system and so there were
many people doing those systems Windows
came out ahead there and now it comes
with the operating system likewise the
the browser is something that Netscape
looked at turning the browser into an
operating system and we looked at taking
our operating system in building the
browser in an integrated fashion well
certainly every product we do is
absolutely as capable as it can possibly
be you know there’s no there’s no
holding back we are the people at
Microsoft come into work every day
building the best products they can and
they’re very proud can you go out go
into schools and see how kids are using
this stuff going ask people about how
their jobs have changed because of the
personal computer you know we’re sitting
there listening to our customers saying
how they’d like to make things better so
we’re we do absolutely our best job and
in fact that’s why we’ve been successful
you know anybody who holds back in this
business isn’t gonna be around for long
because this is a business where you
always have to be moving at a very rapid
pace to Harvard and you’re dropped out
have you ever thought how your life
could be better off if you had gotten
your Harvard degree well I I’m a weird
dropout because I take college courses
all the time I love learning company
courses and things so I love being a
student
and there were smart people around and
you know they fed you and they gave you
these nice grades that made you feel
smart so I I feel it was unfortunate
that I didn’t get to stay there but I
don’t think I missed any knowledge
because you know whatever I needed to
learn I would I was still in a learning
mode we’ve competed against various
forms of eunuchs over the years and
Linux is a growing in popularity and
definitely a competitor has how
threatening a competitor well it’s a
competitor we take very seriously I
think you know part of Microsoft’s
success is that we don’t underestimate
the importance of the work that other
companies are doing and so we look out
we you know we think are there aspects
of that that that are best practices for
example online support some of the
community things that are done around
Linux or are done very well so you know
we’re we’re thinking about it making
sure that our innovation I will make
sure that our value in our leadership
stays in front first I met warren we
were talking about getting together and
doing something again he pulled out his
calendar and the pages were so blank and
I said wow you know you’ve managed to
avoid getting tied in to a lot of kind
of meaningless activity and you know
Warren said yeah you have to be good at
saying no and picking the things that
really make a difference and that’s one
of many things I’ve learned from warm
but that’s one of my favorites and I so
I can blame it on him whenever I’m
turning things down you have made a
significant contribution in the fight
against AIDS in Africa you have funded
to a large degree vaccines and vaccine
research give me a sense of where that’s
directed and which success you think
we’re making and and your own particular
interest in public health in the world
well this is a real passion for me so
I’ll give
succinct the answer people I think don’t
have a full awareness how four billion
of the six billion people on this planet
don’t have basic health needs met the
the death rate of infants the epidemic
infectious diseases that are just a way
of life in most the world don’t exist in
the in the developed world and yet the
research isn’t going on for the
medicines that would get rid of these
diseases even diseases like tuberculosis
where for a few hundred dollars lives
can be saved that’s not being done
vaccines aren’t being moved from the
rich world to the poor world AIDS is the
most extreme where the prevention
measures that could prevent this from
becoming a huge epidemic in countries
like India Nigerian many countries where
it’s not in huge percentages or ei or
two that you know the right things I
think are not being prioritized so the
foundation that my wife and I have is
have taken as its top priority these
world health issues the research getting
the vaccines out and it’s been
fascinating to learn about this and to
try and say that all these lives the
lives all over the world should be
treated with the same value that we
treat lives here in the in the rich
world so your but just to sum up in a
sense I mean the could you have learned
from your own involvement from funding
it in terms of more money than had ever
been applied is that it can make a
difference absolutely millions of lives
can be and should be saved through these
efforts and you know we we can make a
difference and we can encourage others
to get involved that was my last
question is that happening as you fund
these efforts are you I mean is it
becoming a kind of wedge that other
governments and other foundations and
other sources a following suit or
matching yeah we’ve seen a good start I
would say the vaccine fund we put
together
we put in 750 million now governments
have agreed to put up 500 million in
addition to that in the AIDS area some
of the things we’ve backed have been
able to attract additional money having
said that this is a cause that somehow
deserves more visibility because when
you talk to people about this and they
hear about malaria or AIDS they really
do care and they think their
government’s doing more and so you know
when I’m not working a lot of my
creativity is going into what could be
done to show people that their money
would be well spent it would make a
difference and you know try and make
sure that that world health gets gets
more priority than you can save life if
you ask people across the United States
is the future going to be better than
the past most say no my kids will be
worse off than I am they think
innovation won’t make the world better
for them of their children so who’s
right the people who say innovation will
create new possibilities and make the
word world better are the people who see
a trend toward inequality and a decline
in opportunity and don’t think
innovation will change that the
pessimists are wrong in my view but
they’re not crazy
if innovation is purely market driven
and we don’t focus on the big inequities
then we could have amazing advances and
inventions that leave the world even
more divided
we won’t improve public schools we won’t
cure malaria we won’t end poverty we
won’t develop the innovations poor
farmers need to grow food in a changing
climate if our optimism doesn’t address
the problems that affect so many of our
fellow human beings then our optimism
needs more empathy if empathy channels
our optimism we will see the poverty
and the disease and the poor schools we
will answer with our innovations and we
will surprise the pessimists over the
next generation you Stanford graduates
will lead a new wave of innovation which
problems will you decide to solve if
your world is wide you can create the
future we all want if your world is
narrow you may create the future the
pessimist fear I started learning in
sweet oh that if we’re going to make our
optimism matter to everyone and empower
people everywhere we have to see the
lives of those most in need if we have
optimism without empathy then it doesn’t
matter how much we master the secrets of
science we’re not really solving
problems we’re just working on puzzles I
think most of you have a broader
worldview than I had at your age you can
do better at this than I did if you put
your hearts and minds to it you can
surprise the pessimists we’re eager to
see it and one habit that I developed
when I when I was at college it was
actually a very bad habit which was I
like to show people that I didn’t do any
work and that I didn’t go to classes and
I didn’t care and then at the very last
minute like two days before the test I
get serious about it and and people
people thought that was funny you know
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 and it took me a couple years
to get over that nobody praised me
because I would do things at the last
minute and I tried to reverse to
students I’d actually I didn’t think
that highly of who were always organized
and had things done on time I’m I’m
still working on it but procrastination is not a good good habit
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