Bill Gates shares the mindset he used to grow Microsoft: I’ve focused my life on ‘one job’

When Bill Gates left college to found Microsoft, he didn’t think about becoming a billionaire or running a company that is now worth more than $3 trillion.

Gates, who at the time was 20 years old, had a very “boring” definition of success, telling CNBC Do: “At that time, it was just: Is the code of Is it really good? And can this company show the world that these microcomputers are great?”

At the time, in 1976, computer pioneers such as Gates and co-founder Paul Allen were considered “hobbyists” – yet they firmly believed that technological change it’s close. “It was the magic of software. And I was determined to focus my life, in my 20s, only on software, on one job,” says Gates.

Specifically, the task was to create high-quality software that would make the general public accept the personal computer. “Our slogan was ‘a personal computer on every desk and in every home,’ which sounds boring today, but back then. [it] he was absolutely crazy,” says Gates, referring to the mission statement he and Allen repeated over and over to early Microsoft employees.

A strong focus on creating the best product didn’t mean Gates didn’t know there was money to be made – in fact, he insisted on it from the start. In his famous book “Open Letter to Hobbyists” in 1976, Gates wrote that users must pay fair prices to use software so that developers, like himself, are paid enough to ensure that they can work on creating new, high-quality software. industry needed to grow.

One idea Gates – “It was all Microsoft, all the time in my 20s … my vision of success was very Microsoft-centric,” he says – helped push the company to advance in the computer age, to make him one. of the richest people in the world at that time. His current net worth is $128 billion, Forbes estimates.

Today, Gates enjoys “being polymathic and learning a lot,” he says, spending his free time reading about topics like biology, physics and climate science. Those topics are the focus of an upcoming Netflix documentary called “What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates,” which will premiere on September 18.

Gates’ personal definition of success “really evolved” from his younger days, he says.

In part, Gates regrets his single-minded focus, which prevented him – and his employees – from enjoying a sense of work-life balance. Now, he advises everyone to “relax when necessary,” he told students at Northern Arizona University’s commencement ceremony last year.

“I don’t work that hard 1726090834,” Gates recently told Make It. “In my 20s, I didn’t believe in weekends and holidays. So, that was almost out of control, how I pushed myself. “

Today, the 68-year-old’s idea of ​​success depends on a different question, he says: “Am I adding value to the money? [to the world]?” He has pledged to give away “almost all” of his vast fortune — over the next 20 years, he said — to initiatives like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and his investment group clean, Breakthrough Energy.

“Now, I can explain my success in terms of empowering other people [by] sharing what I’ve done wrong, what I’ve done right and donating my resources to things like malaria or climate change,” says Gates.

He expects to continue that work for the next few decades, if his health allows, he adds: “I’m very lucky to be on a different stage. [of my life]but he can still feel that way [I’m] to make a difference.”

Want to know your money this fall? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course. We’ll teach you practical strategies to break your budget, reduce your debt, and grow your wealth. Start today to feel confident and successful. Use code EARLYBIRD for an introductory 30% discount, extended through September 30, 2024, for the back-to-school season.

Also, sign up for the CNBC Make It newsletter to find tips and tricks for success in work, money and life.