Bill Gates: 15 Life Changing Lessons

Bill Gates: 15 Life Changing Lessons 

Who is Bill Gates ?

Bill Gates, born William Henry Gates is the founder of Microsoft, the #1 software company in the world.

He was born on October 28th, 1955 in Seattle, Washington and has two siblings, Kristi and Libby. He is the fourth of his name in his family, which is formally William Gates III. His father was a lawyer and his mother worked at a bank and as a philanthropist. The Gates children were raised to appreciate competition: winning, no matter how trivial, was always rewarded, while losing was penalized and discouraged. This gave Gates an edge from an early age, as he was never afraid to master anything to become the best.

When Bill Gates was 13 years old, he attended a private preparatory school known as Lakeside School. He learned his first code and created his first game by using a donated computer that belonged to his school. His teachers took notice, even excusing him from some classes to allow him to work on his talent.

In 1972 he met Paul Allen and together they designed a traffic counter program known as Traf-O-Data. The school discovered that Gates and his friends had used and hacked into the computer systems for free computer time, which got them suspended for the summer. Thereafter, Gates proposed to design a program that would help to create class schedules for students, something that was warmly accepted and successfully executed. He, of course, paired his schedule with multiple pretty and interesting girls!

He graduated from Lakeside in 1973, scoring a 1590 out of 1600 for his SAT’s. He agreed to attend Harvard University to complete a law degree, something that his parents wanted.

One day, while reading a tech magazine, he found an advert for a programming job and immediately responded to it, even though he did not yet know how he would deliver the program required. Together with Paul Allen, he coded the program required using the Harvard computers and decided to copyright their work. When Altair bought the program from them, he decided to start his own company.

He dropped out of Harvard and worked for Steve Jobs for a short while, helping to design the Macintosh software. By 1976 and at the age of 19 he decided to start Microsoft and in 1980 entered into a pivotal partnership with IBM. (Steve Jobs was furious). There he developed the DOS system and copyrighted it, which is where he learned about the earning potential of his passion.

In 1985 the first version was Windows was released and in 1995 Windows 95 was released, serving as the backbone for all other Windows systems thereafter.

Bill Gates became the youngest billionaire in the world in 1986 at the age of 31 and by the age of 39 he became the richest man on earth.

He married Melinda French in 1992 and together they founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is fully philanthropic. They have three children: Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe and live in Medina, Washington in a 66, 000 square foot mansion overlooking Lake Washington.

Together Bill and his wife have offered as much as $28 billion to global health, assisting African and Asian countries to eradicate disease and to build a foundation for education. Warren Buffet has donated up to $17 billion to their foundation, supporting their efforts to address issues that governments tend to ignore.

In 2008 Bill Gates decided to work full time for his foundation and part time for Microsoft, handing the reigns to his college friend Steve Ballmer. In 2014 Bill stepped down as chairman of Microsoft and appointed a new CEO: Satya Narayana Sadella.

Lesson #1: CHOOSE CONTRIBUTION

“Life is not fair – get used to it!”

There is nothing worse for your personal development than being handed a life that you did not personally work for.

Society has conditioned many of us to be believe that life is unfair and that only a handful of humanity are lucky enough to experience it at its full glory. However, those lucky few will continue to try to teach us that the key to wealth is to contribute to others. The wealthiest people all have this in common: they contribute on a massive and determined level. When contribution becomes your focus and you set out to add value to the lives of your family, your community, your country and the world, that’s where you’ll gain perspective of what is fair and what is not and that’s where your path to success begins.

Do you believe that life has treated you unfairly?

Perhaps you were born with setbacks and disadvantages that people like Bill Gates were not? There’s a hard truth, though: if it were all that easy, wouldn’t everyone at Lakeside School be as successful as Bill Gates?

Maybe it will be a thousand times harder for you than for someone else to become successful and to get out of the circumstance that you are currently facing, but you have what it takes to do it! Just keep creating the spark to light the fire within you and keep your focus on the outcome that you want to achieve!

It takes courage and maturity to accept that life is not fair and that it’s up to you to personally create the life that you were destined for. There is no free ride, no golden ticket to speedy success and the truth is, if there were, it simply wouldn’t feel the same.

There is no greater feeling than achieving an outcome after working your butt off for it, especially if it added value to the lives of others. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work: let’s overcome the obstacles we face one by one and believe that anything is possible!

Lesson #2: MAXIMIZE YOUR LEARNING EXPERIENCE

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”

The times when you will learn the most about yourself, about your talents and skills and what you’re truly made of are ironically in the times when you think that you have failed.

It’s in your moments of failure that you’ll be able to take a minute to assess where you went wrong and to re-strategize a better way to achieve your desired outcome. Giving up is not an option!

Bill Gates is a firm believer in failure, teaching that the times of failure are the times of maximized learning. If you were to succeed all the time, you’d also be un-relatable, which means that you would not be able to help others to achieve success as well.

Think about the last time that you failed: think about all of the lessons that you can draw out from that experience. No amount of formal education can teach you those lessons, they are, in fact, the golden nuggets of wisdom that you’ll rely on in the future!

It’s also important to put failure into perspective: there’s no doubt that if you failed in one aspect, you achieved in another, and if not, you’ll know how to next time!

Conflict, failure, hardships and downtime form a critical part of your learning experience in life, leaving you stronger, wiser and more equipped to deal with obstacles in the future.

Have you ever seen someone who went from A to B without a single failure? If you have, notice how you feel about it: you almost want to warn them that failure is inevitable and that they better get their head out of the clouds to prepare for it! This instinct is built into your very nature-you know that a life without failure, without lessons and times of reflection is not possible, which actually makes this a pretty simple mental shift to embrace failure: it’s where the key to success is!

Lesson #3: BE OPEN TO CHANGE

“People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn’t they?

Unless you’ve consciously prioritized the need for growth over the need for certainty, you’d be victim to the fear of change and likely have a pattern of resisting it! Don’t worry, it’s normal to resist change, because change means stepping outside of your comfort zone and experiencing that discomforting feeling of growing as a person!

The key question is: what will it cost you if you don’t ever change?

Do you want to be doing exactly what you’re doing and being exactly who you’re being in 10 years from now? How about 20? Or 50?

If you do, well, then you can skip this chapter and move on!

But if the thought of experiencing zero growth in your life starts to scare you, it’s time to realize that clinging to certainty will often cost you all of your amazing potential! It’s true what Bill Gates says: there was a time when people feared electricity right at the time when it was invented, but can you imagine a world without it now?

Imagine if society lacked the leaders who pushed people out of their comfort zones and if we lived in a time without paperless books and efficient ways to learn and communicate? Imagine how little we, as a species, would have grown over the last 100 years?

Did you know that today we receive 500% more information per day than in 1986?

Dr. Martin Hilbert and his team at the University of southern California completed surveys to analyze the rate at which we are learning today and the results are amazing! They demonstrated that our daily intake and production of information is five times more than in the 80’s, which has led to incredible developmental growth.

Change might be scary, at first, but it’s the key to your personal development and the only way to produce measurable and inspirational results! Embrace the fear that comes as part of the packaged deal of change, but never let it stop you. Take the action that will push you to your next milestone of personal growth-who knows, maybe someday you can teach what you learned on the journey to others?

Lesson #4: TRUST THE PROCESS

“If I’d had some set idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?”

Have you ever talked yourself out of something because you weren’t certain of the outcome?

We’re all guilty of that! The lesson that Bill Gates teaches here is that none of us, not even him, know precisely what outcome our actions will produce, but that the key is to let go and trust the process.

Can you imagine if Bill Gates had talked himself out of coding in school, or responding to Altair’s advertisement or if he had quit after his first few obstacles? He wouldn’t be the richest man on earth today, he wouldn’t have billions of dollars to improve the lives of millions of people’s in Africa and Asia and we wouldn’t have Windows!

Who will you become if you decide to trust the process?

You do need goals, dreams, strategies and visions, but you will never know exactly what the finish line looks like until you get to it, so let go and trust that it’ll be better than you could ever imagine!

Lesson #5: TAKE RISKS

“To win big, you sometimes have to take big risks.”

Every coach, mentor, leader and winner will tell you: big results often come from taking big risks. It could be a risk on your pride, or it could be financial. It could be trying out something that no-one has ever tried before. But oftentimes the biggest leaps of faith get the biggest rewards, even if there’s a little lag period in-between.

We all take risks on a daily basis: just driving your car is a risk, based on the fact that the traffic lanes are merely strips of paint that separate you from other cars. Anything could happen, right?

There’s a risk in everything you do, so you might as well dive right in and take a leap of faith for something that you believe in and are trying to achieve. Ask yourself: What’s the worst that could happen?

Once you know the answer you’ll be able to face a worst-case scenario, decide how you’ll react if that happens and when you have nothing left to lose, you’ll know it’s time to think bigger than ever!

Be brave, have courage and know that many of life’s most successful people took the necessary risks to get there!

Lesson #6: BE YOURSELF

“Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world. If you do so, you are insulting yourself.”

Our society has become so conditioned by comparison that this could be a hard habit to break. But if you consciously decide to stop comparing yourself to others, whether they’re on TV or in magazines, in your home or in your office, you’ll be back on track to self-respect.

There’s always going to be someone richer, smarter, prettier and stronger than you: once you’re comfortable with that you can let go of whatever it is you’re trying to chase by continually looking left and right at everyone else. Be the best version of yourself! Find out what YOU like, what makes YOU unique and what you love about YOURSELF so that you can cultivate a sense of self-love.

Self-hate is not healthy. Comparison is addictive. The way to get out of that nasty habit and destructive cycle is to prioritize your own individuality above the approval of others. Think about it, why do you look up to people? Is it not because they seem to have everything under control and make life look easier than your experience? Is it not because they have a sense of infectious and unapologetic individuality?

It’s time for you to take a good look in the mirror and practice positive self-talk! Embrace who you are on a deep and inspiring level-know that you are unique, even if it’s in the smallest way, and that it’s time to nurture that!

What are you passionate about? What makes you YOU?

Also remember that there are people out there who will share your same interests and passions and that you can find and create an amazing peer group! Maybe they’re not right under your nose, but they are out there!

The great thing is, it’s as easy as an internet search! If you happen to be so unique that you can’t find a community to relate to, create one! Start a blog, a website or a YouTube channel and draw out the people that will relate to and look up to you!

Lesson #7: EMBRACE OPPORTUNITY

“Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping – they called it opportunity.”

Have you ever denied yourself an opportunity because you felt that it was ‘beneath you’?

Unfortunately, some of the greatest opportunities in life come in disguise! While it is important to have self-respect and to turn down time-wasting, limiting opportunities, it’s equally important to carefully assess the resources that we are given before rejecting them completely.

It’s very likely that you have a strong and capable mindset and will settle for nothing less than the best in your journey to the top! You are courageous and determined, and you will succeed! There’s just one little reminder that Gates is sharing with us: never condition yourself for success to the point of bluntly dismissing the launch pads that life may bring onto your path.

Some ideas or opportunities may seem crazy at the time and you might not be able to see how they could possibly enhance your life or lead to the greatness that you deserve. When it’s this hard to know, the key is to assess:

Do I have something better right now?

Which doors can this potentially open for me?

What connections can I make and what network can I build from this?

What valuable and invisible lessons can I learn from this?

How will this help me grow?

Once you’ve weighed up the cost and reasoned with yourself, a good tip is to commit to a trial period before diving in full time. That way you have absolutely nothing to lose, and even if the opportunity turns out to have been a total waste of your time, at least you can walk away knowing that and having learned what does not work.

In every situation and circumstance, there’s always something that you can learn and some way that you can add value to others! Take it from Gates: he first worked for Steve Jobs before he became Mr. Microsoft!

Lesson #8: TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

“If you are born poor it’s not your mistake, but if you die poor it is your mistake.”

Whether you are going through financial difficulty right now or whether you have been through it, the truth is, your financial destiny lies in no-one’s hands but your own. Sometimes this can be a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s true: there may have been influencers or people who have failed you, and you may be stuck in a place of poverty and desolation, but you can get yourself out of it! It’s all up to you now!

If this is true for you right now, we respect you so much for buying this book! You’ve demonstrated true leadership and stepped into a position of empowerment!

No matter what your circumstance looks like, it’s time to ask yourself some empowering questions!

What can I learn from this?

How can I build better, more empowering connections?

How can I add value to other’s lives?

What does wealth mean to me?

How can I turn things around?

What resources do I have right now that can be used to create something?

How can I further my financial education? (books/audiotapes/podcasts/college)

Who can I learn from?

What can I do differently to maximize my results?

There are so many quality questions that you can ask yourself to get yourself out of a negative state and into an empowering one! Once in a new state, begin to walk the talk, believing that you can create a new future for yourself!

By taking responsibility, you also take control of your destiny, which is an incredible feeling! No longer will you have to rely on others for your financial outcomes, no longer will you blame others and no longer will you limit yourself to what others have decided is your level of success!

Lesson #9: PRESENTATION MATTERS

“If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.”

Even if you are at the lowest point in your entire life, there’s nothing stopping you from making it look and feel incredible. Presentation goes a long way, both to your internal representation of a situation and to others.

Being clean and organized will help you to feel more put together and be in a better state to get yourself out of a slump. Have you ever reached a point in your life when you got so low that you just let yourself go? Maybe you wore tracksuit pants and slippers all day for a while or maybe you let your hair grow out of control. Maybe you ate junk food and watched crap on TV for days on end, and then there came that pivotal moment: either you or someone else inspired you to clean up your act!

The shower, the shave and the clean, crisp clothes put you instantly into a better state and you felt like a new person! If not ecstatic, you have to admit, you did feel a little better right? And people likely responded better to you?

Or maybe one day you just decided to clean up your space, get rid of all your clutter, do all the dishes and get things organized! Did you not feel inspired to act, to create, to get to work on your own personal growth after that?

No matter what task you have ahead of you or what you’re currently dealing with, the least you can do for yourself and others is to make it look good while you’re at it. Some of the poorest people in the world sometimes have some of the simplest and cleanest living spaces and presentation, because they take pride in what they have on the road to a better tomorrow.

Take pride in what you create, where you live, where you work and how you present yourself to others. You have no idea what kind of potential simply dressing, feeling and presenting your work/product/idea better can have!

Lesson #10: BE PATIENT

“Patience is a key element of success.”

If you’ve ever been all fired up for success and failed, you know how it feels when someone tells you to “just have patience”.

As annoying as it may be, it’s true. There’s often a decently sized lag period between our current situation and the ones we want to be in and the thing that gets us through the gap is patience. You need patience to stay determined and patience to keep believing that you will reach your target!

The way to practice patience is in the small things: work on filtering for the good, even while you’re standing in line at a grocery store. Try to learn from each period in which you’re forced to stand still and let time pass. Use that time to be more productive, more resourceful or at best, to make others smile.

Bill Gates started programming when he was 13 years old and it took him 18 years to become truly successful. He started Microsoft when he was 19, sure-but it took him many days, hours and minutes of hard work and being resourceful to get there. When he started Microsoft, he also had to work through years of patience to see his product recognized and to see his vision realized.

Never doubt that the people we aspire to be and the role models that we learn from daily have mastered the art of being patient. Take every moment in your life and spend it wisely, using every lag period to further exceed your own expectations!

Lesson #11: GET TO KNOW REALITY

“Television is not real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.”

Television tends to condition us, because we habitually tune into it for entertainment, inspiration and to get a glimpse outside of our own world. This is where we have to be careful, because television represents only a fraction of what life is really like out there.

In real life, as Gates says, we cannot hang out in coffee shops like we see on F.R.I.E.N.D.S and we’re actually required to be present at the place we work in order to get paid. There is no such thing as instant gratification or getting what you want at every turn and in most scenarios there’s less than a handful of people who are by your side to support you 24/7. Life is tough and often not so funny.

TV shows have script writers, editors, camera men with the best lighting and sound effects and show off actors who are groomed from head to toe for a scene that gets shot a hundred times. It’s also important to remember that the people we see on TV are exactly that: actors, meaning that they themselves are merely acting outside of their own world.

It’s okay to like what’s on TV! The only time that it becomes a problem of conditioning is when you are frustrated or disappointed that your life does not meet the same shallow expectations. There is one way, of course, and that’s to become an actor yourself. Just remember that it will take patience, courage and determination to get there though, there are no quick fixes in life like there are on TV!

Use television for entertainment, but remember to stay in touch with reality: meet up with real people, read some real books and get educated from people who have produced real results in their life.

Lesson #12: EMPOWER OTHERS

“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”

What makes a good leader?

Is it someone who controls others? Or is it someone who inspires and influences others to be their best selves? You know the answer! Of course, there are and have been leaders in the world who have dominated, controlled and abused others, but that kind of leadership is not sustainable, does not produce favorable results and does not set an example for others to follow.

We live in a time of change, where issues like equality, freedom and self-expression are starting to shape the pillars of society. Bill Gates has observed the power of empowering others, something that he himself is greatly respected for. Here’s another quote that he has shared with the world:

“At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas, but the image is that they all come from the top-I’m afraid that’s not quite right.”

Do you see how he builds people up and empowers even his most inferior employees to think of ideas and to design a better product?

If you want to be a good leader and one that is loved and respected by your peers, it’s time to build people up. Narcissism has no place in creating a better world with authentic, inspiring leaders to follow.

Empower others, allow them to be creative and your expectations will very likely be greatly exceeded!

Lesson #13: BE YOUR TOP SUPPORTER

“The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.”

We live in a fast-paced time where everything we want is right within our reach. While that can be great, it poses a risk of desiring an instant reward for small progressions. It might be a time of incredible access to resources, opportunities and quick-to-grab food and entertainment, but it’s also a time of incredible competition if you’re trying to accommodate your ego.

Self-esteem cannot be nurtured by anyone but yourself! If you constantly rely on others for praise and approval, you’ll find yourself dependent on the opinions of others for the rest of your life, and will risk losing your sense of individuality. In order to feel truly good about yourself and to create the momentum that you need to succeed, it’s time to let go of all expectations that you have on the world and to embrace only the expectations that you have on yourself.

When you empower yourself with learning and knowing what you expect only from yourself, that is when you reach a level of total, blissful freedom. You set the standard on your own life and time and you get to decide when to reward yourself for something that you think was great!

There’s no harm in striving to become someone truly significant in the world, but never do it at the cost of your own sense of significance. You know yourself better than anyone else, and you know when you’ve sold yourself short or have achieved something amazing, even if it’s small.

Also, remember to create milestones for yourself and to give yourself a reward each time that you reach a milestone. This cultivates a great sense of achievement and momentum and helps you to stay strong and motivated, no matter what happens in your life. It could be a little trip, a meal, a gift or a new pair of shoes: you get to decide how big or small your rewards are and you get to set the milestones! Give yourself an applause when you need it: it’s a lot more fulfilling than relying on others all the time!

Lesson #14: BE SOLUTION-ORIENTATED

“I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.”

Many of us have been guilty of judging or criticizing others without offering any helpful advice or solutions. We’re conditioned by what we see on a daily basis, where celebrities and role models are often ridiculed for even the tiniest mistake.

It’s easy to be opinionated, but what each of us has to realize is that opinions don’t count as solutions. They are often just juvenile attacks from people who are generally not very influential in their own life.

There’s no harm in communicating a problem with someone, but the way to do it is with the focus on finding a solution. If you don’t have one in the moment, it’s okay, as long as you’re willing to find one and support someone to a better solution. The key is to communicate with respect and to inspire someone to act on a problem. Simply pointing it out often leads to a cycle of resistance, resentment and even bigger problems, which is obviously not the result that you’re trying to get.

As Bill Gates teaches, if we demonstrate a problem to someone and help them to understand WHY it’s a problem, such as what it’s costing them or their business or their family, etc., and then follow that up with a proposed solution or a sense of support, we will be able to inspire others to act and to produce compelling results on their own.

Try it! Next time you’re frustrated with a nagging problem, think and plan how you can communicate it without disempowering others, but rather empowering people to act!

Lesson #15: LEARN FROM OTHERS

“Everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player.”

This is a philosophy that you have already embraced: we know because you’ve decided to invest in this little book and to read it right until the very end!

Having role models, coaches and mentors that have produced the results that you desire in your own life is critical to maximizing your success, and the great thing is that it can minimize the time in which you can achieve it! Learn from their mistakes, absorb their incredible wisdom and grow faster and higher than you ever thought possible!

Bill Gates can serve as an excellent role model, especially for anyone who feels like the underdog! Here’s a great and final quote from him today:

“Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.”

Sometimes we can learn so much from those that we tend to overlook: the nerdiest nerd in your class, office or living space could have tons of incredible wisdom to share with the world! Learn from others as much as you can and remember to share your knowledge with those who could use a bit of inspiration!