The World’s Richest Man Has Got Some Pointers
Bill Gates has come to define the image of American New Money since his dominance in the 1990s. He credits his success, and happiness with life, to some of these lines of advice.
Start Early
Bill Gates says he was only 13 when he started working with computers. If you’re lucky enough to realize your passion early on, you should probably act on it.
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Start Early
It’s true that we can outgrow our young passions when we enter adulthood, but those passions often carry the spark of something that means a lot to us. If you recognize and act on it soon, you can spend your life doing what you love.
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Have Energy
You need a lot of energy to silence self-doubt and conquer the fear that’s natural to any business venture. Timing your energy matters as well, as fresh graduates may have enthusiasm but lack the skills, knowledge, and connections to move forward.
Have Energy
Gates knows that gaining experience through a job in your desired field is certainly a first step. With valuable experience and a less impulsive mindset, channel your considerable energy toward success.
Partnerships
One of the keys to Bill Gates’ success was knowing that it was okay to be the “sidekick” at the beginning of his career if it meant forming a valuable relationship. Partnerships are a key part of success in business.
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Partnerships
Partnerships can entail both a strong mentor and someone who’s got your back in challenging situations. So, always keep others in mind when building yourself up.
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Expectations After High School
Be honest with yourself: you won't earn $60,000 annually right after high school. Education alone isn't enough; experience is crucial, so start getting it.
Expectations After High School
Mr Gates will be the first to tell you that a business degree doesn't guarantee a CEO role at a multinational company. You must earn that position by starting your own company or proving yourself at another.
Be Your Own Boss
If you have a dream, you gotta make sure you can be a leader who can make it happen. There’s no point in waiting for a higher-up to give you the chance.
Be Your Own Boss
Bill Gates’ success stems from being able to become his own boss from a young age and not being held back. It certainly helped that he was a visionary from the start.
Philippe Buissin / European Union, Wikimedia Commons
Learn From Mistakes
After making a mistake, it’s easy to linger in the bad feelings they conjure up. But they happen, and they’re not the end of the world.
Learn From Mistakes
Gates has advised that it’s wise to use mistakes as teachable moments. Recognize what you did wrong, move on, and be able to not repeat them in the future.
Commitment And Passion
Commitment can be hard as, after all, you’re essentially saying that’s what you want to do for the rest of your life. But frankly, that’s what’s required to have a successful career.
Commitment And Passion
Gates never lost the passion for what he was doing, and it certainly served him well. For him, there was likely never a moment when he thought about the stress; it was always just a joy in what he was doing.
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Life Is The Best School
There’s the term booksmart, applying to those who’ve accumulated a lot of knowledge. But knowledge is different from experience, which living your life manages to give you.
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Life Is The Best School
Gates has noted that often, you’ll learn a lot more from a boss than a teacher. These real-life work experiences are where you have to really prove yourself.
Enjoy What You Do
There are probably not enough people who do what they love for a living. With a career, think about making sure you love what your tasks are, or eventually, you’ll get burned out.
Enjoy What You Do
Gates has personally said that he loves working with smart people on new challenges. That methodology doesn’t necessarily have to apply to tech; it can be for any career path.
Be Nice To Nerds
Between all the tech oligarchs who currently run the world, we can deduce that nerds won. So, Bill Gates advises you to be nice to them.
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Be Nice To Nerds
After all, there’s a good chance you’ll be working for a nerd in the future. Start practicing being nice to them in high school, if anything.
TV Is Not Real Life
Television shows don’t often reflect the lives that people actually live. For one, they typically barely show them at work, which makes up a pretty considerable portion of our lives.
TV Is Not Real Life
So, Gates advises you not to mistake fantasy and reality, and remember that we’re all going to have to go to work a lot. Life isn’t going to be like the show Friends, after all.
Firosnv. Photography, Unsplash
Accept That Life Isn’t Fair
This is something your parents probably told you from a young age, but it’s important to keep it in mind even when you hit adulthood. A lot of life is out of our control, and it’s always arguable as to whether the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice.
Accept That Life Isn’t Fair
Gates says this is advice to absolutely keep in mind when getting into business. After all, a lot of risk and hard work isn’t guaranteed to be met with reward, but don’t quit, even with that in mind.
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Take Risks
Every business, even when entering a thriving market, is a big gamble. You have to accept that you’re taking a risk by doing so, and that’s a good thing.
Take Risks
While tech was beginning to boom, nobody could see it overtaking traditional finance as what made money travel the fastest. Gates knew he was taking a risk putting so much into Microsoft, and it paid off.
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Never Fast Forward
Success, more often than not, doesn't come immediately in business. For one, you often need to give people time to catch up to the audacity of your ideas.
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Never Fast Forward
So, Gates would always tell you that patience is one of the true fundamentals of your business practice. He certainly needed it when starting Microsoft.
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Be Proud
Many people feel frustrated when comparing themselves to smarter, richer, or more talented role models. You might wish you were Bill Gates, but everyone is born with different strengths to bring to the table.
Be Proud
Embracing your unique abilities is key to achieving success. By appreciating your own potential, you'll gain confidence to pursue your path, which Bill Gates certainly did.
Be Humble
It's exciting to dream of success and its rewards, but we can’t base our personalities around it. Also, even if we need to be confident, just believing you're untouchable isn't true success.
Be Humble
Life is unpredictable, after all, and it will beat you down at various points. Staying humble and remembering what got you there is key, and will provide you with the tools for future success.
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Love Learning
If you don’t keep learning, you’re going to become stagnant almost immediately. Embrace the fact that you don’t know everything and are always learning.
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Love Learning
For one, Gates had stated that unhappy customers are a great source of learning. From them, you’ll come to quickly realize what’s missing from your business.
European Commission - Photographer: Lukasz Kobus, Wikimedia Commons
Create The Future
The term “innovator” persists in business for a reason. After all, success comes from thinking of something that nobody else has.
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Create The Future
Bill Gates was always thinking about delivering things that nobody else had. In consideration of your business goals, maybe start by asking the question of what’s missing from the field you’re pursuing.
DFID - UK Department for International Development, Wikimedia Commons
Ask For Advice
We’re taught from a young age that we shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions. Just like in school, when we’d get insecure that we’d look stupid in front of the class for doing so, you’ll be happy later that you did.
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Ask For Advice
Bill Gates, for example, used to always ask his ex-wife Melinda for advice on things before making big decisions. Surround yourself with the kind of people whom you feel comfortable asking those questions to.
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Share Your Success
Part of Bill Gates’ legacy has been his numerous philanthropic endeavours. He even went about voicing public disapproval of Elon Musk’s DOGE activities, noting how it would go about harming the world’s poorest people.
10 Downing Street, Wikimedia Commons
Share Your Success
His stance is evidence of Gates’ mantra about needing to share your success with others. Greed after all, isn’t a very rewarding thing to indulge in for the long run of your life.
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