Bill Gates's Top 10 Rules For Success
1. Have energy
2. Have a BAD influence
3. Work hard
4. Create the future
5. Enjoy what you do
6. Play bridge
7. Ask for advice
8. Pick good people
9. Don't procrastinate
10. Have a sense of humor
1. HAVE ENERGY
“When I started Microsoft, I didn’t think of it as all that risky. I was so excited about what we were doing. It’s true, I
could’ve gone bankrupt, but I had a set of skills that were highly employable. And in fact, my parents were still willing to
let m go back to Harvard and finish my education if I wanted to.”
“The thing that was scary to me wasn’t quitting and starting the company, it was when I started hiring my friends and they
expected to be paid. And then we had customers who went bankrupt, customers that I counted on to come through.”
“Then I got this incredibly conservative approach that I wanted to have enough money in the bank to pay a year’s worth of
payroll, even if we didn’t get any payments coming in. And I’m almost true to that the whole time, we’ve got about $10
billion now, which is pretty much enough for the next year. ”
2. HAVE A BAD INFLUENCE
“I want to thank Harvard for this honor. I’ll be changing my job next year and it will be nice to finally have a college
degree on my resume. I applaud the graduates for taking a much more direct route to your degrees. For my part, I’m just
happy that the Crimson called me Harvard’s most successful dropout. I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special
class. I did the best of everyone whofailed. But I also want to be recognized as the guy who got Steve Ballmer to drop out
of business school. I’m a bad influence. That’s why I was invited to speak at your graduation. If I’d spoken at your
orientation, fewer of you might be here today.”
3. WORK HARD
“I’m in meetings a lot, my calendar gets very full with those, and then at night, after the kids have gone to bed, I’m on
email a great deal. I get messages during the day, and that’s my chance to give long responses. Then over the weekend I send
a lot of mails as well. I take two weeks a year to just go off and read and think, where I’m not interrupted by work or
anything else. I’m just solidly trying to think about the future, and people get to send me things to read as part of that
so-called think week. So, it’s nice mix of things. About 25% of the time that I’m out traveling around meeting with
customers - in Europe, Asia - and that sort of helps me think, ‘okay, do we have the right priorities, what are people
responding well to, what would they like to see us do better.’”
4. CREATE THE FUTURE
“Hello, I’m Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. In this video you’re going to see the future - Windows. Microsoft first came
up with the windows concept back in 1983, and today the leading software users have switched into the Windows environment.
It’s really incredible how quickly our powerful applications, like Word and Excel, and PowerPoint have been adopted. It’s
not just Microsoft applications; even companies like WordPerfect and Lotus have now come out with Windows applications. And
every week we see new innovative work, it’s really attracting all the innovation in the industry. We predicted this a long
time ago, and now it is the future.”
5. ENJOY WHAT YOU DO
“The key point there is; you’ve got to enjoy what you do every day. And for me that’s working with very smart people. It’s
working on new problems. Every time we think “hey, we’ve had a little bit of success”, we’re pretty careful not to dwell on
it too much because the bar gets raised.”
6. PLAY BRIDGE
“I love bridge, bridge helps you think. It’s a game you can play your entire life and keep getting better and better. I
think anybody who’s good at bridge is going to be great at a lot of things. So I really encourage people to get involved,
and I want to thank the people who put things together for juniors, they will be thanking you the rest of their life,
because bridge is such a great sport.”
7. ASK FOR ADVICE
“I’ve talked to my dad, I talk to Warren, I talk to my wife Melinda. So I have enough people that know me, and actually know
where my judgment isn’t its strongest, where I might get over excited about something, or forget to think about something.
And so, they’re good at correcting whatever those blind spots are. And I think it’s good to encourage your friends and
advisors to really give them that license, you know I can go to the party and forget to say hello to various people or
something, that’s a very minor example of my blind spots. So you know, a small number of people that you can turn to on
certain key things is a great asset.”
8. PICK GOOD PEOPLE
“My best business decisions really have to do with picking people. Deciding to go into partnership with Paul Allen is
probably at the top of the list. And then, subsequently, hiring a friend, Steve Balmer. And having somebody who you totally
trust, who is totally committed, who shares your vision and yet has a little bit different set of skills and also acts as a
check on you. Some of the ideas you come up with you run bythem, because you know they’re going to say “hey wait a minute,
have you thought about this and that.” And just the benefit of sparking off with somebody who’s got that kind of brilliance,
it’s not only made it fun, but it’s really led to a lot of success. So, picking a partner is crucial.”
9. DON’T PROCRASTINATE
“I had one habit that I developed when I was at college, that was actually a very bad habit, which was; I like to show
people that I didn’t do any work, and that I didn’t go to classes, and I didn’t care. And then, at the very last minute,
like two days before the test, I’d get serious about it. And people thought that was funny. That was my positioning, the guy
that did nothing until the last minute. Then when I went into business, that was a really bad habit, and it took me a couple
years to get over that. Nobody praised me because I would do things at the last minute. I tried to reverse, to students that
I actually didn’t think that highly of, who were always organized and had things done on time. I’m still working on it, but
procrastination is not a good habit.”
10. HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR
Examples:
- Bill demonstrates a fun ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (and challenges three other high profile entrepreneurs).
