7 Key Lessons from a Greatest Leader of all times - Bill Gates
28th June, 2008 witnessed the end of an era
in Business, Technology and Greatness. Founder of Microsoft, William Henry
Gates III, presently the 3rd richest person in the world, decided to start
living a life with bigger purpose. My idol for a long time, Bill Gates has been
a name to reckon with at every single home, at every single corporation. His
career spanning over 33 long years provided a great sense of achievement for
himself and revolutionized the rest of the computer industry. He quoted “If GM
had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be
driving $25 cars that got 1000 MPG”. This is the kind of influence he had after
founding Microsoft Corporation the big giant in the IT industry. I would like
to share some of the great learning’s of mine from this genius.
Success comes with a Great Vision
“Every business and household must have a computer and must run Microsoft software”, was the basic guiding vision of Bill Gates. When people in the world were not even aware of the software industry’s future, when people were unaware of the unknown, here was a man who had full confidence on his gut feel, and had the passion and zeal to take the vision the farthest possible way. He was almost there achieving his vision. This clear vision of him won him success and glory and made him the richest person in the world for 13 continuous long years.
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“Do what you are Passionate about, the rest
will Follow” – Praveen Sherman
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This is something that I learnt from Bill
Gates even as a young lad. I grew up seeing the success of Bill Gates and I was
for a long time under the notion that his luck favored him to make lots of
money. But what Bill Gates proved was beyond my imagination. There is no one
who could write software code as he could. When as a student at the
“Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana” says Bill Gates that has made him a great innovator too. Focusing on taking the computer to every single household made him a household name too.
Failures are learning lessons:
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“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest
source of learning.” - Bill Gates |
Bill Gates was never afraid of losing and went on to win
a lot of deals because of this. While the Microsoft windows operating system is
widely used in the world, good number of criticisms and dissatisfaction about
the software is also heard among the users. While many users got bugged using
Microsoft products, Bill Gates did not easily give up. He took it as a lesson
and is improving every single day to satisfy the users. When critics were
talking about infringement of laws by Bill Gates, he struck on and was giving
the best the employees and the users of Microsoft Software products.
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“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed
the lessons of failure.” - Bill Gates |
When you start achieving something big, there will be people who would want to make fun of your efforts, criticize and try to pull you down. The stronger you stand the bolder you get the faster these negatives fade.
When IBM pulled out
of the contract for the operating system to be bundled with the IBM Clone PCs,
Bill Gates stayed on and started focusing on the creating Windows amidst lots
of hiccups that will hamper the company. Inventing the MS Access database
system was a relevant owing to the failure of the Omega Database with IBM. He
saw an opportunity at every single place that helped him to take a step ahead.
He did not allow others to discourage him. He came up with new inventions and
followed his top most Goals
and vision.
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“Whether it’s Google or Apple or free software, we’ve got some
fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes” – Bill Gates
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Bill Gates took up
the accountability of being the Chief Software Architect, Bill Gates was
nurturing Microsoft by building a wide spectrum of products. This was not just
to capitalize on the knowledge but to provide the best by understanding the
requirement of the people. He did not wait for people to ask what they wanted
and instead made a revolution of creating an opportunity for himself and his
company by innovating. He did not sit and do something that anyone could, but
he took the reins into his hands to take Microsoft to this great heights.
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“I believe that if you show people the problems and you show
them the solutions they will be moved to act.” – Bill Gates
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Action Speaks Louder
This is one never
mentioned secret of success. Action is the key word. When logic never drives us
its emotions. We must have that emotional strength in us to act, to perform.
Bill Gates as a small young boy never had anything to lose which he kept
telling his good friend Paul Allen. When he had several odds against him such
as the American Law and several cases against him, he still without fail took
action by developing more software which the people wanted. This made him a
super star overnight. If not for Bill Gates, Microsoft would have not seen the
light today of what it gets. This was because of his persistence and constant
delivery of ideas to his Goals and vision.
He was a drop out
from one of the world’s best universities the Harvard and not everyone from
there went to achieve great heights like Bill Gates did, which reiterates the
basic fact that education is just a tool for success and does not define
success itself. During the convocation address at the Harvard university, Bill
Gates mentioned that good he came when they were graduating and not when during
the time when they joined the university else they would have changed their
mind.
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“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.” – Bill Gates
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Trust- An unwritten rule for great leadership
wisdom
Right from day 1 at
Microsoft, Bill Gates was very open to the ideas. This he also proved later
when Steve Balmer stepped into the shoes of Bill Gates and became the CEO of
the company. He always believed that there is no end to learning from people,
from books and so on. “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”, says Bill Gates ready for more ideas to float around which will make sure
that the same culture of innovation continues in Microsoft even without his
presence.
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“At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is
that they all come from the top |
Success must never get on to the head
This is by far the best lesson what we learn from Bill Gates. At a tender age of 21, Bill Gates had achieved many a things beyond money and fame. This did not allow him to stop achieving and always had the drive to achieve great heights. “If I’d had some set idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?” quote Bill Gates with utmost passion and determination.
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