Bill Gates is certainly one of my work heroes. I feel at least any computer repair technician or entrepreneur or business person has to have at least some form of respect for what Gates has done. Creating software that can be used on any kind of computer is genius. As a high schooler with Paul Allen, Gates was programming school’s class schedules. They proceeded to write BASIC for the Altair 8800. Then, came writing software for Commodore, Apple, and Tandy Corp.
The early years
Microsoft hit it big time in 1979 when Gates developed MS-DOS, the first Microsoft operating system. The rest is pretty much history. Microsoft was king which even lead to regulators claiming Microsoft was a monopoly. Well, damn right it way. Nobody could compete nor come up with a better idea than attempting to clone it. Of course, Gates went on to improving and creating better Windows operating systems throughout the year, amassing a fortune as high as $107 billion reported in 2019.
What happened post-Microsoft?
That’s all amazing without a doubt. But, what’s even more amazing is what Bill Gates has done after making all this money and being at the top of success. By joining forces with his wife, Melinda, they tackled the toughest of world issues.
While others simply would be happy with their quiet retirement, Bill always felt a sense of commitment to do more and give back to society. I just watched “Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates,” which is on Netflix. A great watch. Surely, Bill seems to download books into his brain, using content when needed. He has applied this sense of curiosity to many of the leading world issues.
The world causes and the Bill and Melinda Gates’ Foundation
One of the leading issues Gates has led up has been to eradicate polio. Yes, there is a cure for it. But, it wasn’t reaching the masses. Gates was able to create a sophisticated heat map for reaching folks in need. For more of this strategy, you may read more here on the Bill Gates’ polio eradication strategy.
Another issue dealt with sanitation. Less fortunate countries were literally pooping in the same water they were drinking. This led to many deaths. Gates not only put up money towards this effort, but treating it like a startup, creating a reinvented toilet that would actually turn the feces into drinking water. I love that he not only wants to help in cases like this, but went a step ahead to create a new technology to resolve it. To read more about this toilet drinking water machine, read here.
The last topic I’ll bring up deals with how Gates will resolve the climate change issue. I’m a little at odds with this one, see Chernobyl. Gates believes having a safer nuclear energy will remove CO2 emissions. So, although I’m not able to pull up my big boy pants and believe 90% of idle nuclear energy is safe, I do have faith in Gates for pulling it off. He’s a genius and as long as he’s focused on such a resolution, it will probably happen. Here’s a good read on Gates’ tackling climate change.
The take-away
To sum this all up, I knew Gates was THE philanthropist, but never really knew he was at this level. It’s one thing to donate, but it’s another whole different thing to challenge yourself to create a technology or solution to actually resolve a crisis. Of course, Gates will always be looked up to as the angel here versus Steve Jobs who didn’t donate, but don’t judge. Jobs was ill for a good portion of his later years and one’s good deeds shouldn’t bring someone else down. The take-away here is Gates is a saint, a do-gooder, and all those things we’d hope such a genius would do. Gates is a human being I want my kids to look up to and emulate. He’s our modern-day Superman and really hope he’ll live many more years to accomplish all of his and our goals together.