'Wish I wasn't the world's richest man'
Bill Gates, co-founder and chairman of the world's largest software company, Microsoft Corporation, is also the world's richest man. His personal wealth has been estimated at $50 billion (Rs 225,000 crore).
Interestingly, he has been ranked the world's second most influential management guru just behind the legendary Michael Porter, who heads Harvard Business School's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, and just ahead of our very own C K Prahalad. Amazing for a man who does not have a college degree, having dropped out of Harvard to establish Microsoft.

Chairman Gates has always interesting things to say and we present some memorable Gatesian observations:

"I wish I wasn't (the world's richest man). There's nothing good that comes out of that. You get more visibility as a result of it."

At a chat show for a television channel in New Delhi in December 2005, he shared the platform with Infosys Chairman N R Narayana Murthy. When the mike was handed over to Murthy to test, he said, "One, two, three..." into it and gave it to the Microsoft czar, who promptly said, "One billion, two billion, three billion..."

"I certainly will never be a politician. For every reason. I wouldn't like it, I wouldn't be elected. I'm better at what I'm doing."

"My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things."

"I like my job because it involves learning. I like being around smart people who are trying to figure out new things. I like the fact that if people really try they can figure out how to invent things that actually have an impact."

"I find golf very relaxing. It's a way to get away from work and get outside. It's a lot of fun, and once you get going it's almost kind of addictive."


'Success is a lousy teacher'
"Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose."

"If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure."

"Life is not fair; get used to it."

"Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they'll give you as many chances as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life. Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself."

The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.

You will not make $40,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

'When the Internet came along, we had it as 5th or 6th priority'
"Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana."

"In this business, by the time you realise you're in trouble, it's too late to save yourself. Unless you're running scared all the time, you're gone."

"Competition is always a fantastic thing, and the computer industry is intensely competitive. Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes."

Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping - they called it opportunity.

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

"Sometimes we do get taken by surprise. For example, when the Internet came along, we had it as a fifth or sixth priority."

"As I look forward, I'm very optimistic about the things I see ahead. As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others."


'Kids are taking PCs to new heights'
"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."

"There will be 'two societies' in the future: high-paid knowledge workers and low-paid service workers."

"There are people who don't like capitalism, and people who don't like PCs. But there's no one who likes the PC who doesn't like Microsoft. People everywhere love Windows."

"Every day we're saying, 'How can we keep this customer happy?' 'How can we get ahead in innovation by doing this, because if we don't, somebody else will.'"

"Kids are taking PCs and the Internet to new heights. They're the ones that are designing the cutting-edge web sites. They're the ones that are pushing forth things like digital music, digital photos, instant messaging; and they will take this tool in directions that we don't even expect."

'Spam will be a thing of the past in 2 years'
"Like almost everyone who uses e-mail, I receive a ton of spam every day. Much of it offers to help me get out of debt or get rich quick. It would be funny if it weren't so irritating."
"Does the e-mail say it's about 'enlargement' -- that might be spam. Spam will be a thing of the past in two years' time."

"Software suppliers are trying to make their software packages more user-friendly... Their best approach, so far, has been to take all the old brochures, and stamp the words user-friendly on the cover."


"Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight."


suppose I could comb my hair more often'
"Microsoft is not about greed. It's about innovation and fairness."

"Is the rich world aware of how four billion of the six billion live? If we were aware, we would want to help out, we'd want to get involved."

"As you improve health in a society, population growth goes down. You know, I thought it was... before I learned about it, I thought it was paradoxical."

"AIDS is a disease that is hard to talk about. The ideal thing would be to have a 100 percent effective AIDS vaccine."

"I have drifted away from thinking about these philanthropic things. And it was only as the wealth got large enough and Melinda and I had talked about the view that the wealth wasn't something that would be good to just pass to the children."

"I'm serious when I do my work. I'm not serious when I'm home with my kids."

"If you're asking whether I intentionally mess up my hair, no, I don't. And certain things, like my freckles, they're just there. I don't do anything consciously. I suppose I could get contact lenses. I suppose I could comb my hair more often."

This is from http://bill-gates-news.newslib.com/story/520-3232454/


On Innovation and Design...

1. Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

2. 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.

3. The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.

4. Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.

5. People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn't they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines. There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters. The two areas that are changing are information technology and medical technology. Those are the things that the world will be very different 20 years from now than it is today.

6. The internet will help achieve "friction free capitalism" by putting buyer and seller in direct contact and providing more information to both about each other.

7. Make it just like a Mac.

8. Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.

9. I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user.

10. We are not even close to finishing the basic dream of what the PC can be.

11. So we do software for watches, for phones, for TV sets, for cars. And some of these take a long time to catch on.

Greatest Sales Lines Ever...

12. I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user.

13. In the decade ahead I can predict that we will provide over twice the productivity improvement that we provided in the '90s.

14. Some people read off of their Palms and Pocket PCs, but the real immersible reading experience takes a full-screen device.

15. People everywhere love Windows.

16. Windows 2000 already contains features such as the human discipline component, where the PC can send an electric shock through the keyboard if the human does something that does not please Windows.

17. We're responsible for the creation of the PC industry. The whole idea of compatible machines and lots of software.. that's something we brought to computing. And so it's a responsibility for us to make sure that things like security don't get in the way of that dream.

18. When the PC was launched, people knew it was important.

On Life's Lessons...

19. Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.

20. Capitalism is this wonderful thing that motivates people, it causes wonderful inventions to be done. But in this area of diseases of the world at large, it's really let us down.

21. I do think this next century, hopefully, will be about a more global view. Where you don't just think, yes my country is doing well, but you think about the world at large.

22. If you show people the problems and you show people the solutions they will be moved to act.

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

24. Life is not fair; get used to it.

25. The U.S. couldn't even get rid of Saddam Hussein. And we all know that the EU is just a passing fad. They'll be killing each other again in less than a year. I'm sick to death of all these fascist lawsuits.

26. Let's face it, the average computer user has the brain of a Spider Monkey.

27. I have 100 billion dollars... You realize I could spend 3 million dollars a day, every day, for the next 100 years? And that's if I don't make another dime. Tell you what-I'll buy your right arm for a million dollars. I give you a million bucks, and I get to sever your arm right here.

28. Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.

Taking the Fight to the Enemy...

29. In this business, by the time you realise you’re in trouble, it’s too late to save yourself. Unless you’re running scared all the time, you’re gone.

30. I'm sorry that we have to have a Washington presence. We thrived during our first 16 years without any of this. I never made a political visit to Washington and we had no people here. It wasn't on our radar screen. We were just making great software.

31. About three million computers get sold every year in China, but people don't pay for the software. Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.

32. There are people who don't like capitalism, and people who don't like PCs. But there's no one who likes the PC who doesn't like Microsoft.

33. Microsoft is not about greed. It's about innovation and fairness.

34. To create a new standard, it takes something that's not just a little bit different; it takes something that's really new and really captures people's imagination — and the Macintosh, of all the machines I've ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard.

35. The best way to prepare [to be a programmer] is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and fished out listings of their operating system.

36. We will never make a 32-bit operating system, but I'll always love IBM.

Just recently American Multi-Billionaire with his wife came to Nigeria to come and see what they can do to assist Africa and Nigeria as a Nation. Bill and Melinda Gates promised to fight HIV/AIDS.
Read more...




- US multi-billionaire Bill Gates has promised to assist Nigeria in fighting HIV/ AIDS in talks with President Olusegun Obasanjo.


During the meeting in Obasanjo's southwestern Ota farm Saturday, the president discussed the state of the Nigerian economy and his government's achievements in agriculture with Gates, who was accompanied by his wife, presidential spokeswoman Oluremi Oyo told journalists, according to official News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Sunday.

Gates assured Obasanjo that the Bill and Belinda Foundation, founded by him and his wife, would give more assistance to Nigeria in the fight against poverty and disease, Oyo said.

The Foundation would help Nigeria battle tuberculosis, polio and HIV/AIDS, she said.

During their two-day visit, the Gates were to monitor progress Nigeria has made in the fight against HIV/AIDS and poverty.

According to officials, more than 3.5 million Nigerians carry the HIV virus or have full-blown AIDS.

Obasanjo, a former African Union chairman, has a long-standing relationship with Gates, who had in recent times shown tremendous interest in Africa and made funds available for the fight against poverty and diseases on the continent, NAN said.

Early this year, Gates and Obasanjo were among guests at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where poverty and HIV/AIDS in Africa were discussed.