Bill Gates Is Making a Difference
November 23, 2009 by
Matthew
Filed under
Business, Entrepreneurship
Microsoft founder and uber-billionaire Bill Gates may not be everyone’s idea of a role model. In an era where success and achievement are typically glamorized by Hollywood interpretation and where all stories need to have a a happy ending, Gates’ journey through our lives has not always been viewed through rose-colored glasses. For many years, Gates was ridiculed by the bloggers and critics of his company’s position of dominance, but since he stepped away from that Seattle Empire to focus on his work in the Gates Foundation, he has traveled the world and is in the process of making a significant difference through his philanthropy.
Much of his work is devoted to healthcare and to improving the lot of that significant portion of the world’s population that cannot necessarily look forward to longevity or to the pure joy of living that good health brings. His significant resources allow him to channel funds toward the provision of medicine and equipment to stop the spread of today’s most vile diseases such as AIDS and malaria. His involvement inevitably provides a significant spotlight, which in itself is a major achievement toward those goals and this exposure also provides education within the developed world about these modern-day scourges.
The Gates Foundation provides funding to significant scientific endeavors, worldwide. As the boundary pushing entrepreneur he was used to making investments in the future and has since then carried through this philosophy to his support of science and exploration. Gates is very hands-on and fully wants to understand what the scientists are working on before he commits his funds and that of his foundation. He knows that not all of his funding will net a “result,” but is certain that all of it will make an ultimate difference in the future.
As part of his well-rounded approach to problem-solving, Bill Gates understands that while his resources are substantial, they are a relatively small investment in what needs to be done. He reasons that education is probably equally or more powerful and that he should devote much of his resources to encouraging others, both individual and corporate, to also get involved. Interestingly, he sees much growth in online educational initiatives and would like to see more virtual university tuition available. He sees the Internet as a way of breaking down some of those financial and capacity barriers standing in front of would be graduates.
For someone with a complete understanding of marketing, technology and communications, Gates is keen to devote much of his time to developing these platforms as part of his quest to help others. He believes that we need to encourage philanthropy through these channels, both within the more established countries and traditional charitable sources such as the US and within the emerging, new worlds of India and China.
Gates certainly does what he preaches. He tells people that they must engage with something they are passionate about and that this is the only way to find success. He achieved this goal at Microsoft and is well on his way to making a huge difference in the world of philanthropy and in the care of his fellow man.
Do you think Bill Gates is making a difference?
Matthew Toren
I agree their is a lot of young entrepreneur success and achievement in different kind of business.
Nice to see someone with all that money actually giving back and helping peoiple. To bad more people that are that rich just dont get the fact when they die the money means shit.. so do some good with it.
Bill gates worked hard to achieve his goals. Now, he is sharing his wealth through different educational and healthcare programs.
We are in very frightening times, What Mr. Gates has chosen to do shows his true character. We as as a society are either going to come together or pull each other apart. If is the latter we will all fall. Here is another read, that I hope you’ll resonate with. http://tinyurl.com/yz4mxwv
I also used to believe that bill gates is a monopolist etc. But when I read his book business at the speed of light I started appriciating his amazing vision and the execution capability and after all that he had the courage to step away from an active role at MS and to focus his wealth and intelligence towards some of the large problems humanity is facing. I guess he so far the only super succesful entrepreneur to do that. I think he is and will continue to make a meaningful diff
Thanks for your post. You can also read the book creative capitalism (ISBN-10: 1416599428) on this topic. It is explaining how e.g. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet approach philanthropy in their “post-capitalism” life. What they call creative capitalism is to look for business opportunities in the fields that are most challenging for human kind. However, I believe what they do is to wash their dirty dollars and conscience clean. I would preferred instead if they would have acted in a sustainable and social manner already during their time as successful entrepreneurs . If you ask me: Business in our days should have social and sustainable responsibility as its core values and dna and it should not be separated into business and “post-capitalism charities”… I agree though that it is better than nothing to give back and the richest can make a difference due to their financial power and media presence!
Its clearly a subjective question. I think it might have been better if Gates had been more charitable throughout his career than just at the end of it - then perhaps Microsoft would have been seen as a little cooler than it is viewed today and would be putting up a better fight with Google.
Perhaps, however, he wouldn’t have then been the same man that made Microsoft what it is today. Tricky one.
I think we should all be thankful that the richest people on the planet (Buffett, Soros, Gates, Rockefeller) are such philantropists. If I read some of the reactions to this post it keeps amazing me that people are so quick to draw their conclusions (’trying to wash their dirty dollars’).
Face it: they are rich beyond YOUR wildest dreams. You WISH you were as rich as they are, I know I sure as hell wish I was. And face this: they do more for charity percentage-wise than you do.
So my advice to all of you: adapt Rockefeller’s rule: spend 10% of all you earn on philantropy. Because if you say ‘I will do philantropy when I am rich enough’, well guess what: you’ll never do it…
I agree with Jesse Meijers. Bill Gates is a great man. So are the others he mentioned. But The cooment was is Bill Gates making a difference.
While I think it is great what Bill Gates is doing, I think that the real humanitarian is his wife. Although not able to do much of anything without his resources, I’m not sure he would have done much of anything without her pointing him in the right direction. From everything I’ve read it seems that she is steering the ship in this area of their lives and more power to her and to him. While most wealthy wives thrive on getting everything they can out of their wealthy husbands Mrs. Gates seems to be trying to eradicate diseases and world afflictions. Pretty awesome!!