Bill Gates on Elon Musk, The Secrets of Entrepreneurial Success, & His Work in Africa

Bill Gates spoke to Amol Rajan at the BBC recently, discussing the secrets of his entrepreneurial success, building Microsoft, and his thoughts on Elon Musk.

Today, he’s a full-time philanthropist, looking back on the life that placed him in such a privileged position, so he can help others.

Secrets of Microsoft’s success

Everyone’s keen to know the formula for success in business, but despite numerous books on the subject, and many gurus, a lot of start-ups still fail. Even Bill Gates admitted there’s a degree of luck involved in his success. He felt he’d had good fortune on his side.

“What factors are needed for entrepreneurial success?” Amol asked, as he reeled off elements that had benefitted Microsoft — key partnerships, a sense of vision and purpose, a huge work ethic, and a sense of timing. “Being in the right place at the right time,” as he put it.

“Those were all vital ingredients,” agreed Gates. “We also recognised that the software would be valuable and that it would be on every desk in every home.” That was something people laughed at and ridiculed at the start, but it was obviously insightful, looking back.

“We were the first. We had speed of engineering, low prices, global presence,” he said. “We became the most successful software company.”

Gates said, if he had his time again, he wouldn’t change things, because he’d been lucky and it might not work out so well if he’d done things differently.

“Were you a tyrant?” Amol asked. Bill Gates had famously memorised the number plates of staff at his offices to he could monitor who was coming and going. He rarely took holidays. He worked hard and was a hard taskmaster. He was famous for his outbursts: “That’s the stupidest effing thing I’ve ever heard!”

Indeed, Gates had previously described himself as ‘fanatical’. But he replied, “Working for me was a guaranteed way to make tens, or hundreds, or millions of dollars, and to work on some of the most interesting things. My style was move fast, be tough. Everyone wanted to be there.”

It sounded a little like Elon Musk’s way of working.

He disliked being compared to Elon Musk

He didn’t seem very keen on being compared to Musk however, arguing that he didn’t insult presidents, didn’t try to run three companies at a time, and wasn’t commenting on trends, like Musk.

He even suggested that Musk was cleverer than him for being able to juggle so many companies, while Gates focused on just the one.

Gates has a knack of predicting the future, having said at a Ted Talk in 2015 that a pandemic was likely. In terms of future predictions now, he told Amol, “Elon Musk will someday be a great philanthropist”.

He didn’t think Musk’s plans for space travel were the best way to spend huge sums of money, though. “Travelling to Mars is expensive!” he said, arguing that he’d rather spend his billions saving lives and solving problems on earth. He envisaged Musk would focus on solving earthly problems in due time, and pointed out the merits of Tesla’s electric cars.

Social media has made political dialogue toxic

What does he think of social media? He agreed with Amol that Microsoft may have helped pave the way for these online social media platforms, and said they’re a mixed blessing.

“The next generation is always given some great breakthroughs and some challenges that come with those breakthroughs,” he said. “I hope they can solve the problems [associated with negative social media]. Political discourse is worse with social media than without it.”

They chatted about the toxicity of social media. How people cannot seem to have civilised conversations anymore — they cannot agree to disagree. He also found some conspiracy theories difficult to take.

“The downside is people being ill-informed and sharing lies with each other — it’s caught me by surprise. But I do think it’s overall positive,” he said.

What does ‘rich’ mean to you?

“What do you consider rich?” asked Amol. Gates replied, “Not having to worry about whether I can pay my kids’ tuition; can I afford a nice trip. That is an incredibly luxury. If you have enough for your family’s consumption, at quite a high level, that’s a huge privilege.”

“Are you frugal?” Amol asked. “I don’t have a gigantic closet,” Gates said. “I don't wear jewellery, but I don’t re-use old wrapping paper.” He explained that his mother liked to keep all the old wrapping paper to use it again.

“I’m still quite demanding,” he added. He likes to make sure his Foundation’s money is well spent and that they’re doing the most they can with the funds, to alleviate poverty and eradicate diseases like polio and malaria in Africa.

Are you a climate hypocrite?

On climate issues, he’s investing in a lot of green technology, but he flies by private jet. Some might say, “you’re a hypocrite”, pointed out Amol.

“I buy gold standard of funding Climeworks to do direct air capture that far exceeds my family’s carbon footprint, and I spend billions of dollars on climate innovation,” replied Gates. “So should I stay at home?

“I’m comfortable with the idea that I’m not part of the problem by paying for the offsets. But also through the billions that my breakthrough energy group is spending, I’m part of the solution.”

As a passive viewer of the conversation, I’m left wondering what’s wrong with a business class seat on a passenger airline, but I’m not there asking the questions. Perhaps he feels security is an issue. He was, after all, the world’s richest man for a very long time. Not everyone likes that. He still has enemies — a quick search on his name on Twitter proves that.

Making the world a better place

Bill Gates has been a full-time philanthropist since 2008, working to reduce poverty and child mortality in Africa. Today, his work focuses on tackling hunger, disease, inequality, and mitigating the effects of climate change among vulnerable communities, as well as developing solutions to reduce global carbon emissions.

Amol asked Gates why he decided to become a philanthropist. Was it guilt, to live a more purposeful life, excitement about the outcome, or just that he didn’t know what to do with so much money?

“I find the work very fulfilling,” said Gates. “I knew the wealth of Microsoft was more than I or my family could ever spend.

“When I read that diarrhoea was killing a half a million children and that the vaccine to stop these deaths was being given to the rich kids but not the poor kids, I said: Wow, now I know the area of inequity most of my money will go on.”

And to critics of his work? “All of us should work together to save lives.”

He continued, “When Melinda and I found out how little was going into saving children’s lives, we got going right away, funding vaccines and work on malaria.”

But it’s not just his money he likes to give away. He wants to give his time as well. He likes to oversee the projects in person, ensure the money is well spent and the benefits of his expenditure are maximised.

To alleviate poverty and empower communities, “we provide better seeds and systems for farming,” he explained. “I get to learn and go to interesting places. There’s no sacrifice.”

That’s as good a reason to become a philanthropist as any.

© Susie Kearley 2023. All Rights Reserved.