

How to Become As Rich As Bill Gates - r11t
http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/

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wallflower
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?

"What are the greatest business lessons Bill has taught you over the years?

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.

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.

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?

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."

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."

[http://www.forbes.com/2008/06/25/raikes-bill-gates-tech-
cz_v...](http://www.forbes.com/2008/06/25/raikes-bill-gates-tech-
cz_vb_0625techraikes.html)

~~~
wallflower
And, if you harbor doubts about Bill Gates' technical ability:

My First BillG Review by Joel Spolsky

"He was flipping through the spec! [Calm down, what are you a little girl?]

... and THERE WERE NOTES IN ALL THE MARGINS. ON EVERY PAGE OF THE SPEC. HE HAD
READ THE WHOLE GODDAMNED THING AND WRITTEN NOTES IN THE MARGINS.

He Read The Whole Thing! [OMG SQUEEE!]

The questions got harder and more detailed."

<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/06/16.html>

There is a nice little koan about technical management in that essay too: "he
just wants to make sure .."

* Note - submitted this last night but should have put it in the original comment - my submissions auto-bury themselves.

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TomOfTTB
I think this is about as accurate an account as you'll get in regards to how
Bill Gates made his money.

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")

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)

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)

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)

~~~
frisco
> 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)

What? I'm pretty sure Gates is the quintessential technical founder. He wrote
the original Altair BASIC implementation himself in something like a week, and
snuck into University of Washington's computer labs in the middle of the night
in high school. I don't think I've ever seen anything that implied otherwise.

~~~
TomOfTTB
Being able to create something quick that's workable doesn't really indicate
that you're a good programmer.

As far as never hearing anything about it, I based the statement on a couple
personal accounts. But "Barbarians Led By Bill Gates: Microsoft From The
Inside" has an account of at least one programmer calling Gates code terrible.
The programmer in question co-wrote the book so you have to take it with a
grain of salt but it seems true because the story he tells is one that paints
Gates in a positive light (he doesn't fire the guy for calling his code junk
right to his face)

~~~
jhaitsma
One often-overlooked aspect is that for business purposes, the first priority
is to have something that gets the job done. Release early and often, then
iterate towards perfection - but only for what your customer wants.

This generally means that its not great, but it works. If time permits, it is
great to tidy / refactor bad code, but this is not always possible. Reminds me
of an item posted a couple of weeks ago - "confessions of a terrible
programmer"

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henryl
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.

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.

Does anyone have any tips on how best to arrive at decisions in a <4 person
startup?

~~~
krschultz
In a small place like that, consensus must rule because the founders are
basically equal. At a place like Microsoft, Oracle, Apple - the answer is that
the big guys built the place and gave everyone their jobs so therefore they
answer to them. Who are you? Some guy who just went through college and took
no risk in joining some giant in their field. Who are they? The guys who took
the risks to start those places. So if they think your ideas are shit, then
they can say it and you have to take it. But at a company of 4 people, who are
you? You are just a co founder of a (probably as of yet unprofitable) little
startup company. Where are you getting the power to call their work shit from?
Plus, if its a guy like that their time is extremely valuable and you are
wasting it with your shit ideas.

I bet if you go into microsoft and sit in on the development meetings between
a team on basically the same level on the org chart, they aren't nearly as
hostile as top down reviews.

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ojbyrne
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.

Lesson 8 is the best part.

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mattmaroon
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.

~~~
krschultz
Anyone is a lofty standard. Some is true, but you don't hear about the super
smart guy who worked really hard but for some reason or another luck didn't go
his way and then he had no safety net to fall on. I can take risks because
although my parents aren't leaving me a trust fund, if shit REALLY hit the
fan, I could always move in with them instead of starving in the streets. If
you have nobody to lean on, risks seem a lot bigger when you have further to
fall.

~~~
mattmaroon
I actually know a lot of people who did that. They all got by. America at
least is a very easy place if you're smart and hard working. That is not true
in many parts of the world unfortunately.

~~~
krschultz
A lot of people is still not anyone. I know several people on the other side
of the coin who were incredibly smart and ambitious and resourceful and
failed, with no one to fall back on, and now have some serious problems in
their life. There is no doubt these guys would have bounced back a lot more
easily if they had a trust fund to lean on.

~~~
mattmaroon
I don't think anyone would claim that a trust fund is a disadvantage. But if
the people you know are really smart, ambitious, and resourceful, then give
them time. They're still just in process.

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pg
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.

~~~
bonsaitree
True, but Google wouldn't have even been launchable without his family's
connections to Sun Microsystems founder Andy Bechtolsheim and his $100k angel
investment.

Mark Zuckerberg is a more apt comparison. With all of the money and privilege
he had growing up, he'd better be changing the world.

~~~
pg
Neither had family connections to Bechtolsheim that I know of. Where did you
hear that?

~~~
anamax
Stanford CS "family".

Without knowing the story (but knowing some of the players), I'd guess that
David Cheriton is also involved.

~~~
ajju
Stanford CS is a "family" you don't have to be born into. You can get into
Stanford by being good.

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

