Yahoo Finance Bill Gates on the day he knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates thought he’d never consider an early retirement, but by his mid-forties, his perspective changed.
“If you’d have asked me in my twenties if I’d ever retire early from Microsoft, I’d have told you that you were crazy,” Gates wrote in his blog, Gates Notes.
“It was hard for me to imagine anything else I’d rather do.”
But years later, Gates recalled how the US government’s antitrust suit against Microsoft had drained him, “sucking some of the joy” out of his work.
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When he stepped down as CEO in early 2000, Gates hoped he could focus more on building software.
But instead, he was pulled towards the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and its work in US education and the development of drugs and vaccines for diseases in poor countries.
In the fall of 2001, Gates recalled a crucial moment: Warren Buffet had invited him to a resort in West Virginia to speak to a group of business leaders about what he and Melinda were learning.
“Right around the time Warren asked me to give the talk, Melinda and I were trying to figure out how we might use our voices to raise the visibility of global health,” Gates said.
“My speech to Warren’s friends was a chance to practice. If I could stir them, it would be a step towards persuading the people with the power to make the biggest difference: the legislators and heads of countries who decide how much money flows into foreign aid and global health.”
And as he spoke, Gates said he “was energised”.
“When ideas excite me, I rock, I sway, I pace—my body turns into a metronome for my brain. For the first time, all the facts and figures, anecdotes and analyses cohered into a story that was uplifting—even for me,” he said.
“I was able to make clear the logic of our giving and why I was so optimistic that a combination of money, technology, scientific breakthroughs, and political will could make a more equitable world faster than a lot of people thought.”
“The confidence I found that day encouraged me to take a more public role on global health issues.”
And, Gates said something else happened that day.
“The speech helped me see more clearly a life for myself after Microsoft, centered on the work that Melinda and I had started.
“Eventually, I would retire from Microsoft almost a decade earlier that I had planned. The 2001 speech was a step, a private moment, on the way to that decision.”
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