2. AGENDA
1
• BACKGROUND
2
• TWO GOOD QUALITIES OF BILL GATES
3
• THE INSPIRING BILL GATES
4
• FAMOUS QUOTES AND NET WORTH
3. 1. BACKGROUND
•Businessman, philanthropist, investor, computer programmer, and
inventor
• Co-founder, Microsoft (1975)
• CEO, Microsoft
•Chairman, Microsoft
• Works full-time at his own foundation, Bill & Melissa Gates Foundation
Career
• Enrolled in the Lakeside School, at age 13 and started to build interest
in programming there.
• He wrote his first computer program of tic-tac-toe that allowed users
to play games against the computer.
• Enrolled at Harvard College in 1973 and dropped out of Harvard the
next year.
Education
• Wife: Melinda Gates
• 3 Children: daughters Jennifer Katharine (19 y/o) and Phoebe Adele (13
y/o), and son Rory John (16 y/o)
Family
4. 2.TWO GOOD QUALITIES OF BILL GATES
Humble
• He highlighted on his effort to
improve on his communication and
public speaking skills.
• Gates is also known for his wisdom in
seeking council from others.
Learn From
Failure
• Before Microsoft, there was Traf-o-
Data.
• Gates recalled the first demo failed
because the machine ‘didn’t work’.
• They moved on and Microsoft
became the largest personal-
computer software company in the
world.
5. 3. THE INSPIRING BILL GATES
Caring about people
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the world.
• It is "driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family” and is a Private Grantmaking
Foundations.
• The primary aims of the foundation are, globally, to enhance healthcare and
reduce extreme poverty, and in America, to expand educational opportunities
and access to information technology.
•About 200 sanitation projects in many different countries and at various
scales.
•The University of KwaZulu-Natal in SouthAfrica was awarded US$1.6
million in 2014 to act as a hub for sanitation researchers and product
developers.
•Donated USD 3m to 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake victims.
Contributions
6. 4. FAMOUS QUOTES AND NET WORTH
• If you can't make it good, at least make it look good.
• Life is not fair; get used to it.
• Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
• I choose a lazy person to do a hard job because a lazy person will find
an easy way to do it.
• Net Worth (as of 28/9/2015): $79.2 billion
Humble–
After landing billionaire lists several times, it would be easy for Gates to become prideful or think he knows it all. But he’s not that way. In fact, a recent Forbes article highlighted his efforts to improve on his communication and public speaking skills (Forbes). Gates is also known for his wisdom in seeking council from others. He often speaks of how much he has learned from Warren Buffett. Gates once commented that Buffett has a “brilliant way of looking at the world” (BBC). Like a sponge, Gates tries to soak in lessons learned from his mentor in order to become a better leader.
Before being the richest person in the world and owning Xanadu 2.0 (the ‘Bill Gates House’), a computerized residence with real-time adjustable temperature, music and lightining for each pin-wearing guest, Bill Gates was a failing entrepreneur.
The Failure
His first company was Traf-O-Data, the objective of which was ‘to read the raw data from roadway traffic counters and create reports for traffic engineers‘. In this way, the company would optimize traffic and end road congestion.
The company’s product was the Traf-O-Data 8008, a device which could read traffic tapes and process the data. They first tried to sell the processing service to the local County, but their first demo failed because the machine ‘didn’t work’, recalled Gates.