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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781782433736 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Michael O'Mara Books |
| Publication date: | 09/15/2015 |
| Series: | How To Think Like series |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
How to Think Like Bill Gates
By Daniel Smith
Michael O'Mara Books Limited
Copyright © 2015 Michael O'Mara Books LimitedAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78243-375-0
CHAPTER 1
Engage Your Brain
'Life's a lot more fun if you treat its challenges in creative ways.'
BILL GATES IN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR JANET LOWE, 1998
No one can say that Bill Gates's story is one of rags to riches. There was no need for him to fight his way out of the ghetto or pull himself up by his bootstraps. Nonetheless, his early life is an object lesson in making the most of the advantages bestowed upon you.
William Henry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington state, on 28 October 1955. His parents were William Gates, Sr, a lawyer, and Mary, a teacher and businesswoman, and Bill would be their middle child and only son. The family was keen on card games and so Bill came to be known as Trey, a card-player's term for a 'Three' that reflected his 'III' designation.
Both parents were thoughtful and well educated, and wished the same for their offspring. From his youngest days, Bill was encouraged to occupy himself with interests that would stretch the mind. So, for instance, television was banned on school nights – a rule with which Gates was relatively easily reconciled. As he would tell an interviewer in 1986, 'I'm not one of those people who hates TV, but I don't think it exercises your mind much.' Instead of being glued to the screen, the Gates family instead indulged their passion for, among other pastimes, conversation, games and reading.
This latter activity fundamentally moulded Gates's life through its many and varied phases, and we shall look at his relationship with books in more depth later (see 'Read Like Bill Gates', here). Meanwhile, family discussions on everything from current affairs to culture, sport and the trivia of everyday life ensured that the young Bill had a broad base of interests and the ability to articulate his opinions. Contrary to the popular image of the average trailblazing techno-geek, Bill was never the introverted little boy who found comfort behind the protection of a computer screen.
In fact, he was something of an extrovert, and a highly competitive one at that. As might be expected in a family that awarded him a nickname related to card playing, the Gates clan encouraged competitiveness. As an example, each year the family holidayed in an area by the Hood Canal, near Puget Sound. The Gateses would go with several other young families and the highlight of the vacation was always a mini-Olympics in which they all competed. Although Bill was quite a small physical specimen, he was doughty and determined. Only the foolhardy underestimated him as an opponent. Speaking to author Janet Lowe in 1998, he revealed, 'In the summer, we'd ... play a lot of competitive games – relay races, egg tosses, Capture the Flag. It was always a great time, and it gave all of us a sense that we could compete and succeed.'
In retrospect, it should come as little surprise that Bill was particularly keen on games of strategy, especially chess (in which he desired to be a Grandmaster) and 'Go'. His performance benefitted from his natural grasp of logic and a seriously impressive memory. On one occasion, the minister at the family church offered a prize to anyone who could learn the Sermon on the Mount off by heart. Gates was, of course, word perfect when he came to deliver it. His youthfully exuberant explanation when the minister asked how he had managed such a feat: 'I can do any-thing I set my mind to.'
His ability to memorize is further evidenced by the fact that well into adulthood he was able to reel off his lines from a high-school play in which he appeared. Such perfect recall proved most useful as his passion for computer programming grew, with his ability to remember great expanses of computer code putting him ahead of the game.
Growing up in an era of Boys' Own-tales of space exploration, Gates was also open to the technological possibilities of the future. When he was six, he visited the world's fair in Seattle, the centrepiece of which was an awesomely tall observation tower known as the Space Needle. In America in the early 1960s, the future was a place in which everything was possible and he bought into the idea wholeheartedly. In Gates's case, the boy really was the father of the man, as it is a dream that he has never let go of.
Gates showed promise in his early years at school but his attention was prone to wander, so in sixth grade (around the age of eleven) his parents moved him to a private school, Lakeside, where they hoped he would be given work to challenge his burgeoning intellect. He demonstrated particular potential in the areas of mathematics and science – when he took his SATs in 1973 he scored a perfect 800 on the maths component. Not that he was a one-trick pony, though: he continued to nurture a broad range of interests, showing a liking for drama and politics in his senior years. Many years later he would acknowledge that his teens were pivotal in his development, declaring to Steven Levy, author of Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, that his 'software mind' was shaped by the time he was seventeen.
Others were quick to see his promise. Several Ivy League universities came calling and he chose Harvard. However, like his great rival-to-be, Steve Jobs, he skipped a lot of classes once he was in college. He continued to excel in those subjects that interested him but simply disengaged with those that did not. He did, though, make full use of the computer labs, undertaking his own projects and sometimes spending days at a time there. And when he got bored, he filled his hours with poker marathons.
Gates was born into an environment where lively intellect was not only admired but actively encouraged. Quick-witted, thoughtful and excited by what the world had to offer, he thrived. He may not have been the model student – especially in those areas that captured his imagination less – but he embraced his own intelligence and never felt the need, as so many children do, to hide it from the world.
In a 2000 book by Cynthia Crossen, The Rich and How They Got That Way, Gates is quoted as saying: 'Smartness is an ability to absorb new facts. To ask an insightful question. To absorb it in real time. A capacity to remember. To relate to domains that may not seem connected at first.' It is a credo that has served him well.
CHAPTER 2Gates's Heroes
'How can an ugly little guy who isn't even really French manage to rise up and rewrite the laws of Europe ... This is one smart guy.'
BILL GATES, QUOTED IN GATES: HOW MICROSOFT'S MOGUL REINVENTED AN INDUSTRY – AND MADE HIMSELF THE RICHEST MAN IN AMERICA (1993)
Gates was never one for hero-worship, even as a teen, when most of us adorn our walls with images of sportspeople, pop stars, movie icons or political revolutionaries, to whom our devotion may or may not stand the test of time. Nonetheless, he developed a small coterie of figures whom he admired, including some of the greatest figures in history.
He was, for instance, a great fan of Sir Isaac Newton, the seventeenth- to eighteenth-century natural philosopher best remembered for his formulation of the laws of gravity. As a fellow mathematician and physicist, Gates of course aspired only to the very best. Also deemed worthy of his adulation was Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian polymath whose varied achievements (from painting the Mona Lisa to designing a prototype flying machine centuries before human flight was achieved) made him the archetypal 'Renaissance Man'. Leonardo has continued to cast a spell on Gates into adulthood, and an expensive one at that, as we shall see in the chapter 'Enjoy the Trappings of Your Success' (here). As he said in The New York Times in 1995: 'Leonardo was one of the most amazing people who ever lived. He was a genius in more fields than any scientist of any age, and an astounding painter and sculptor.'
Other 'heroes' came on to the Gates radar later in life, although it has not been easy to meet his exacting criteria. Henry Ford, for example, failed to make the grade, serving as a role model when it came to attaining success but letting him down by his relative failure to retain it. Nelson Mandela, by contrast, won Gates's admiration for his almost unworldly magnanimity and his ability to maintain a cool rationale even in the face of extreme provocation. While parallels between the great anti-apartheid leader and the software wizard might have been hard to discern in Gates's younger days, it is much easier to see the influence of Mandela in his reincarnation as a global philanthropist.
Perhaps a more obvious subject of esteem for the early period Gates was Tiger Woods, who came from nowhere to set new standards in the golfing world not long after Gates had made a similar impact on the computing industry. Both achieved much while still very young and brought a focus to their respective fields that few others, if any, have matched.
Gates turned his attention to the modern scientific community for another favourite – the physics Nobel laureate, Richard Feynman. He was crestfallen when Feynman died in 1988, shortly after Gates had determined to meet him in person. Born in 1918, Feynman was an American theoretical physicist best known for his work in quantum mechanics (including quantum computing) and particle physics, and shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for his efforts in quantum electrodynamics. He also sought out innovative ways to present his discoveries, creating a pictorial system that came to be known as Feynman diagrams. Gates no doubt appreciated his grasp of the importance of both substance and style. But perhaps his appeal to the Microsoft supremo is best summed up in a couple of lines Feynman once wrote to one of his students: 'The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones you can really contribute something to ... No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.' They are words that could easily have tumbled from Gates's own mouth.
FRIEND AND ROLE MODEL
Arguably the person who Gates most looks up to is a man who by his own admission has little feel for the technological world that Gates inhabits. Warren Buffett, however, is a fellow self-made multi-billionaire and one of Gate's chief rivals to the title of richest man in the world. He has also exerted enormous influence on Gates's philanthropic adventures. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1930, Buffett is the head of Berkshire Hathaway and widely regarded as among the most wily investors who has ever lived. His fortune, which was estimated at $73 billion in 2015, came virtually exclusively from his knack of backing the right commercial horse. Known as the 'Oracle of Omaha', Buffett credits much of his success to following the principles espoused by the professional investor Benjamin Graham, whose works Buffett began studying in the late 1940s. To give an idea of Buffett's skills in making money out of money, a $10,000 investment in Berkshire Hathaway in 1965 was worth in excess of $50 million in 2014.
Gates met Buffett for the first time in 1991 at an event arranged by Bill's mother, Mary. They instantly hit it off. In 2006, the Guardian newspaper quoted Gates as saying Buffett 'has this very refreshing, simple way of looking at things'. It helped that they shared a sense of humour and the same broad political affiliations – both tend toward the Democratic party. They even have similar taste in food: despite their vast wealth and their regular attendance at grand banquets, both still enjoy the humble hamburger. Both also have an instinct for frugality so that on one occasion when the pair had travelled to China together, they opted to eat at a McDonald's and Buffett paid for the meal using money-off vouchers that he had made a point of carrying with him. Buffett's influence on his young protégé extends much further, though.
He was, for instance, responsible for Gates taking up the game of bridge with some seriousness. (For a man who had long enjoyed playing games, it is somewhat surprising that he had not come to bridge – the tactician's ultimate card game – earlier.) More significantly, Gates credits Buffett with fundamentally influencing the way he approaches commerce. In a speech at San Jose University in 1998, he said, 'I think Warren has had more effect on the way I think about my business and the way I think about running it than any business leader.' Buffett himself notably did not put his money in Microsoft but only because he makes it a rule to only invest in sectors he is confident he understands. The computer business does not fit that bill. He has, though, freely acknowledged Gates's entrepreneurial flair, saying in 1992, 'I'm not competent to judge his technical ability, but I regard his business savvy as extraordinary.'
However, surely posterity will regard Buffett's impact on Gates's philanthropy – in terms of financial backing, strategy formulation and moral support – as the most important fruit of their friendship (see here). In 2008, Gates said on the Charlie Rose show:
Warren Buffet is the closest thing I have to a role model because of the integrity and thoughtfulness and joy he brings to everything he does. I'm continuing to learn from my dad, I'm continuing to learn from Warren and many times when I'm making decisions, I try and model how they'd approach a problem.
CHAPTER 3Find Your True Calling
'I was lucky enough, at a young age, to discover something that I loved and that fascinated me – and still fascinates me.'
BILL GATES IN INDUSTRY WEEK, 1996
In 1986, a feature in the Wall Street Journal painted a picture of Bill Gates's life as a Harvard student in terms that could apply to millions of other naval-gazing undergraduates facing up to impending adulthood. Gates described himself 'sitting in my room being a philosophical depressed guy, trying to figure out what I was doing with my life'.
Doubtless, this is a broadly accurate depiction, in that the exact path of his life was yet to be laid out. However, whereas many students literally have not a clue about what will come after their carefree university days draw to a close, Gates was all but destined to make his mark in the computing industry. After all, he spent swathes of his waking hours honing his programming skills and had done for years. When Gates first got serious with a computer, he was only thirteen, but very quickly it was evident that it was a relationship built on firm foundations. He had found his love and was intent on nurturing it.
The 'first date' occurred around 1968 at Lakeside school, although it was something of a blind date. That is because Lakeside did not have a computer of its own. Such things were too large and much too expensive for a school to possess in those days. To own a mainframe computer – the cutting-edge machines of the time – you needed a budget of millions and acres of air-conditioned space in which the banks of equipment could be kept at a suitable temperature. Nonetheless, Lakeside did have a teletype machine, which could be connected to a mainframe housed elsewhere. Lakeside paid to use the mainframe on a time-share deal alongside numerous other institutions.
Although the computing that could be done within this system was rudimentary to say the least, the experience captured Gates's imagination instantly. He and a few other pupils set up the Lakeside Programmers' Club, and before long Gates had written his first chunk of original code – a program to run a game of tic-tac-toe. Never one to let his youth hold him back, Gates was the youngest member of the club but one of its most prominent characters. His refusal to cede time on the teletype machine eventually resulted in him being asked to leave the group, but he was soon back when the others realized he was capable of technical feats that they were not. He agreed to rejoin but, in typical Gates fashion, he insisted it would be on his terms. He returned as a more dominant figure in the club than the one they had exiled.
Nonetheless, there was still the thorny issue of economics. It cost students about $8 an hour to use the machine. That would be expensive for your average internet café today but in the late 1960s it was a small fortune for a schoolboy to find. For a while the group received funding from a parents' group, but it was not long before that revenue stream could not keep pace. Meanwhile, Bill's parents were stretching themselves to send him to the school in the first place and were in no position to bankroll his new hobby. So Gates did just what he has done all through his life – he used his initiative. He needed money, so he would find a job.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from How to Think Like Bill Gates by Daniel Smith. Copyright © 2015 Michael O'Mara Books Limited. Excerpted by permission of Michael O'Mara Books Limited.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction,Landmarks in a Remarkable Life,
Engage Your Brain,
Gates's Heroes,
Find Your True Calling,
Embrace Your Inner Geek,
Keep an Eye on the Big Chance,
Find Your Comrades-in-Arms,
Employ the Best,
Dare to Dream,
Innovate, Innovate, Innovate,
Gates and Intellectual Property,
Lead from the Front,
Learn from Your Mistakes,
Keep Track of the Competition,
Business is Business,
Realize That No Man is an Island,
Enjoy the Trappings of Your Success,
Take Time to Reboot,
Read Like Bill Gates,
Give Something Back,
Redefining Philanthropy,
Creative Capitalism,
Bring Your Celebrity to Bear,
Philanthropic Aims: Providing Education and Equality of Opportunity,
Philanthropic Aims: Combating Disease,
Gates and God,
The Gates Legacy,
Selected Bibliography,