How to Become As Rich As Bill Gates

My favorite BillG story (told by the CEO of a startup I worked for - and just found the real version via Google). Yes, it is a standard business koan (e.g. why would I fire you because we just spend X amount educating you) but can you imagine any average CEOs doing that?<p>"What are the greatest business lessons Bill has taught you over the years?<p>Very early in my career at Microsoft, around February 1984, we found a data-crashing bug. I wondered if I would get fired over it. I went to Bill with the head of development. I was then the product manager.<p>It was a classic meeting. Bill was on the couch looking down. I explained that we found this bug and that we thought we were going to have to recall the product. He nodded, did his rocking thing and kept looked down. We were both wondering if we would get fired. Bill wasn't saying anything so my anxiety was growing.<p>I explained that we're going to have to recall the product, and that it's going to cost several hundred thousand dollars and be a hit to our reputation. Bill rocks and looks down. We didn't have anything else to say. I thought: Is this when the ax comes?<p>Then Bill looks up and says: "You came in today and lost a few hundred thousand dollars. You come in tomorrow and hope you do better."<p>His expectation wasn't that we weren't going to make mistakes. He wanted to know that we took it seriously and learned from our mistakes. That's very motivating."<p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/2008/06/25/raikes-bill-gates-tech-cz_vb_0625techraikes.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.forbes.com/2008/06/25/raikes-bill-gates-tech-cz_v...</a>

I think this is about as accurate an account as you'll get in regards to how Bill Gates made his money.<p>Yes, his entire family was rich and his parents were well connected (when most people tell the story they leave out "Bill Gates got the call from IBM because his mother was on their board")<p>Yes he got unbelievably lucky (so much so that he turned down IBM, sent them to the makers of QDOS, and still made the deal after QDOS blew it)<p>and Yes, he's not a great hacker (he's smart and knows enough about technology but the couple Gen 1 Microsoft employees I've met say he can't code worth a darn)<p>But even with all that he would have failed if not for his keen business insight and technical accumen. I guess you need both luck and skill to become the richest man in the world (but I'm betting skill can still get you pretty rich)

I've always wondered if the advice to avoid argument and criticism from "How to Win Friends and Influence People" was at odds with internal business meetings. It seems that extremely successful businessmen like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Larry Ellison create a culture where criticism and argument form the cauldron from which great ideas are culled. At the same time, the human mind is seldom changed by argument or logic.<p>My current opinion is that the Dale Carnegie way of business is great for sales or extremely flat organizations, but in larger or more established organizations, credible and aggressive (almost totalitarian) leadership can build "consensus" more effectively through argumentation, criticism, and decisiveness.<p>Does anyone have any tips on how best to arrive at decisions in a &#60;4 person startup?

I've been racking my brain for months trying to remember where I saw a quote that turns out to be in that article. "The reason that you've having trouble is that you don't know anything and you're not working very hard." Thanks for that.<p>Lesson 8 is the best part.

Anyone with Bill's off-the-charts intelligence, business savvy, and entrepreneurial drive would end up very wealthy even if they were born in the ghetto. Maybe not Bill Gates wealthy, but more than enough that they'd have no interest in reading this sort of thing.

The first 3 steps seem to be optional. Larry and Sergey didn't have rich ancestors or get their ideas by buying them, and it doesn't seem to have harmed them.

You are a product of your environment. --Clement Stone