Bill Gates

Bill Gates advice

Quotes, Insights

Insights from the founder of Microsoft

 

Quotes

Authors

 

 

Bill Gates advice

Microsoft is a company that manages imagination.

Bill Gates

 

   

Achievement, Success

 

 

 

 

I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.


I believe that through our natural inventiveness, creativity and willingness to solve tough problems, we're going to make some amazing achievements in all these areas in my lifetime.


It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.


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


Once you embrace unpleasant news not as negative but as evidence of a need for change, you aren't defeated by it. You're learning from it.

 

Bill Gates on IT, e-Business, Internet

Microsoft's 7-part Competitive Strategy

Knowledge-sharing Practices at Microsoft

4 Ways To Raise Organizational IQ

Innovation Management Policies of Leading Large Companies

Attributes of the Super Smart sought by Microsoft

GM vs. Microsoft

Microsoft 70-764 Test

 

 

 

Bill Gates advice

Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes.

Bill Gates

 

Bill Gates advice

Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes.

Bill Gates

 

 
Bill Gates advice

The vision is really about empowering workers, giving them all the information about what's going on so they can do a lot more than they've done in the past.

Bill Gates

 

 

Success, Achievement

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.

Intelligence is an elusive concept. There's a certain sharpness, an ability to absorb new facts. To walk into a situation, have something explained to you and immediately say, "Well, what about this?" To ask an insightful question. To absorb it in real time. A capacity to remember. To relate to domains that may not seem connected at first. A certain creativity that allows people to be effective.

Capitalism is this wonderful thing that motivates people, it causes wonderful inventions to be done.

If I had to say what is the thing that I feel best about, it's being involved in this whole software revolution and what comes out of that, because you can go all over the world and go into schools and see these computers being used and go into hospitals and see them being used, and see how they're tools for sharing information that hopefully leads to more peaceful conditions, and just the great research advances that come out of that.

Creating Customer Value

We're focused on providing innovations in software, driving the continuous improvement for a much better experience, and there's a lot going on here that speaks to this decade and what's going to happen in this decade. We can kind of sum it up in terms of saying, "Yes, you can."

Every day were 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.

You need to know about customer feedback that says things should be better.

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

Learning from mistakes and constantly improving products is a key in all successful companies. Listening to customers is a big part of that effort. You have to study what customers say about their problems with your products and stay tuned into what they want, extrapolating from leading-edge buyers to predict future requirements.

Business Success

When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft over 30 years ago, we had big dreams about software. We had dreams about the impact it could have. We talked about a computer on every desk and in every home. It's been amazing to see so much of that dream become a reality and touch so many lives. I never imagined what an incredible and important company would spring from those original ideas.

Of my mental cycles, I devote maybe ten percent to business thinking. Business isn't that complicated. I wouldn't want to put it on my business card.

Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without talking about the other.

Virtually everything in business today is an undifferentiated commodity, except how a company manages its information. How you manage information determines whether you win or lose. How you use information may be the one factor that determines its failure or success – or runaway success.

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. 

We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction.

Don't make the same decision twice. Spend time and thought to make a solid decision the first time so that you don't revisit the issue unnecessarily. If you're too willing to reopen issues, it interferes not only with your execution but also with your motivation to make a decision in the first place. After all, why bother deciding an issue if it isn't really decided?

We are living in a phenomenal age. If we can spend the early decades of the 21st century finding approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits and recognition for business, we will have found a sustainable way to reduce poverty in the world.

People Power

Leaders are those who empower others.  >>>

Great organizations demand a high level of commitment by the people involved.

If you give people tools, [and they use] their natural ability and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected.

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

You've got to give great tools to small teams. Pick good people, use small teams, give them excellent tools... so that they are very productive in terms of what they are doing.

  

 

William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, philanthropist, author and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder. He has also authored or co-authored several books.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.