Bill Gates has pulled off one of the greatest hacks in technology and business history, by turning Microsoft's success into a force for social responsibility. Imagine imposing a tax on every corporation in the developed world, collecting $100 per white-collar worker per year, and then directing one third of the proceeds to curing AIDS and malaria. That, effectively, is what Bill Gates has done.
The unofficial goal of Microsoft in its early years was to see a computer on every desk and in every home, presumably running Microsoft software. That sort of vision, put forth in a time when the conventional wisdom dictated that personal computers might disappear entirely, was astounding enough. But by the year 2000, just 25 years after its founding, Microsoft had achieved that improbable goal, at least in the developed world.
The story of the Gates Foundation is well-covered, but it's important to consider the context in which the Foundation was created. What would you do if you defined the most ambitious goal you could imagine, and then achieved it just 25 years later? And what if you had done so while still relatively young, not even fifty years old? That's the position Gates found himself in just a decade ago.
Most people, when faced with the realization of their greatest dreams, will respond at first with elation, and then later settle into melancholy or even depression. It can be overwhelming to think that there's nothing left to do. Instead, Gates upped the ante.
How high did he set his new goals? How about curing AIDS? Or ending the spread of malaria? What about improving life expectancy and quality of life for the poorest people in the world? After achieving a goal that seemed outlandish, it's clear that the only logical next step is to try to achieve a goal that seems nearly impossible. I have to point out that sense of thinking "Okay, we won -- what next?" is extremely unusual.
Plainly, I admire Bill Gates for this. I think there are few people who, instead of resting on their laurels, decide to stake their reputation and fortune on goals that are not only altruistic, but that conventional wisdom dictates may not be achievable in a single lifetime. There are many other ways to measure a man, and I'm not diminishing at all the fact that Microsoft as a corporation has made regrettable, unfortunate, and even illegal decisions during Bill Gates' tenure. But imagine if someone had defined an explicit goal of a "cure AIDS tax" for corporations, and then tried to get that enacted. The fact that, effectively, this has happened is remarkable.
And there are many who still want to think, despite the commitment of incredible resources and formidable talents to support the Gates Foundation's mission, that all of this philanthropic work is an attempt to simply generate good PR. But that simply doesn't follow the facts.
A Family Tradition
The truth is, Bill Gates doesn't just come from a family tradition of philanthropy: It's actually a significant part of the reason he got the single biggest opportunity of his professional career. You can see the family tradition today, with the founding chairman of the Gates Foundation being William Gates Sr., Bill's father. But you have to go back twenty years earlier, to Gates' mother Mary Maxwell Gates, to understand how philanthropic work opened doors for a fledgling Bill Gates and Microsoft.
Mary Maxwell Gates was deeply involved in the work of the United Way for many years before her passing in 1994, most notably as its first female chair. And one of the connections she made through that work back in 1980 was to John Opel, the chairman of IBM who was also a member of the United Way's executive committee.
It's become fairly clear in the years since that at least part of the reason IBM was willing to hire Microsoft to create an operating system for the initial release of the IBM PC was because of the introductions made through that connection. Taking a risk on an unproven small software company was a big leap to take, and it's one that ended up being the greatest turning point in the history of the biggest software company that's ever been created.
It's fitting, then, that that opportunity is honored by having the founder of the company return all of his efforts and the vast majority of his wealth to an even more ambitious new vision for philanthropic work. So, congratulations to Bill Gates on his new job, and I hope this hack is even more successful than all the ones that he's done in the past.
Essential Links
A few recommendations for those who want to understand more about Bill Gates and his legacy:
- Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews published Gates: How Mirosoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry, back in 1992. I have been a big fan of this book since it came out. It was released before his period of greatest fame after Windows 95 launched, and perhaps as a result is more insightful than later efforts that tried to case Gates' entire life and career merely in the context of post-monopoly Microsoft. (I've shown the original, gloriously awful, cover photo above, but I think the paperback edition has less floppy-disk lunacy.)
- Fortune has a slideshow covering 30 years of Bill Gates' career, narrated by the man himself.
- Gates' 2003 rant about the shoddiness of the Windows user experience. Though this has prompted lots of "haw, haw, Windows sucks!" responses from geeks, I though it was interesting to look past the memo as merely a document of a typically dysfunctional large company. What struck me was a founder, nearly 30 years after starting the company, and decades after becoming wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, still obviously had both great passion and an enormous amount of technical knowledge.
- Those same themes of passion and technical competence are echoed in Joel Spolsky's essay about his first BillG review. Joel revisited this in a less-geeky version of the essay published in Inc. magazine.
Thanks for posting this. As someone who has been conflicted about billg it's nice to see someone else with a similar point of view.
I do know one thing. Regardless of what the haters say, there is NO WAY that Bill is doing the whole Gates Foundation thing as some PR ploy to salvage his image/legacy.
I know that there are a lot of people pissed off at what Microsoft has done, but I truly believe that Bill is a good man.
Another great article on the Gates Foundation is “What Money Can Buy,†in the October 24, 2005 issue of The New Yorker. It's not online yet, unfortunately, just a summary. But it was after reading that article that I came to admire Bill Gates and the goals of the Gates Foundation.
—Theory
A tax? What Bill Gates has done is eons more moral and commendable than a $100 per year tax on white-collar workers. Gates earned his money honestly. People willingly parted with their money in exchange for a benefit (anti-MS zealots, insert Blue Screen of Death joke here). Gates is choosing to use a large portion of his money for charitable causes. He's a very successful man, and a very generous man! It's also another nail in the coffin of the idea that capitalism is incompatible with charity. Rather, charity is impossible without capitalism (if it's not voluntary giving of money, it's not charity!)
Beautiful. Thanks for posting.
yeah, guess what, Bill G has lots of pharmaceutical stocks, yeah right he's simply being nice. It's all a front.
Great article. I didn't know the whole Bill's mom->United Way->IBM connection.
This article joins my top ten Anil Dash posts, along with -- and you might think I'm kidding, but I'm not -- your 2003 post-VMAs Justin Timberlake concert review.
RE "Imagine imposing a tax on every corporation in the developed world, collecting $100 per white-collar worker per year, and then directing one third of the proceeds to curing AIDS and malaria." This is a well-known meme. However, what happened to "no taxation without representation?"
Bill is no Robin Hood, who stole from the rich to give to the poor (at least in legend). Bill stole (yes, convicted of illegal monopoly practices) from rich, middle-class, and poor, and puts himself in no danger, still keeping billions while giving away billions, and looking good. So, laudable as far as it goes, but this is celebrity cred that money _can_ buy, and shows that he's still one of the world's best businessmen.
God doesn't count how much we give. He counts how much we have left.
Hack? I am afraid you have been misinformed.
This blog entry lacks sources regarding "I didn’t know the whole Bill’s mom->United Way->IBM connection." please clarify your sources. Thank you.
Warren Buffett is likely the world's most recognized financial investor and one of the richest men in the world. He and Bill Gates have been great friends for over a decade.
Buffett, a man who amassed during his lifetime tens of billions of dollars and a reputation for rarely making any financial mistakes, let alone large ones, has donated roughly his entire fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This is a man who never moved from his first, modest Oklahoma home and still drives a rather modest automobile, if I'm not mistaken, despite having maintained a controlling stake in a company worth over $186 billion.
Additionally, Warren Buffett's gift was established as a gift of stock in his company given to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation only for as long as one or the other of them remains alive, portions of the gift awarded annually in an amount in the billions per installment.
This equates to a statement made by the best investor in the world that the remaining unspent portion of Buffett's wealth (and any large sum of money in general) is most likely to be maximized and gain more value over time as stock in his own company, but that the money is best spent toward the betterment of mankind if given to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to be spent specifically under the supervision of either Bill or Melinda Gates during their lifetime.
After deciding that no person is better fit to maximize any investment than himself (Buffett), and that no person is better fit to improve the world than Bill and Melinda Gates, Buffett chose to invest almost all of the wealth within his control to a foundation marked by the name of another man and woman, and he chose that couple to be Bill and Melinda Gates. Additionally, he decided to focus the remainder of his lifetime on what he does best: maximizing the value of the gift that he has committed.
That should serve as by far the most profound proof that Bill Gates integrity needs needs no stamp of approval from any of us - anyone who values their own less-informed opinion of Bill Gates' conviction over Buffett's opinion must be, by definition, a prima donna. This statement was made by the world's best financial investor and in the most extreme fashion that a financial investor can make such a statement. It truly is the just about the most severe endoresement of one's integrity that is possible and should not be overlooked in any discussion regarding Bill and Melinda Gates's image and legacy.
Given the low probability that such a decision could have been a mistake, it seems asanine that Bill Gates' legacy is still even a topic of debate. Many thanks for this post.
The one thing I would modify in the post would be the part about a "tax" on corporations, or those who use Microsoft products. On the contrary, I would say that Microsoft's products have actually contributed to increased productivity for individuals as well as businesses, which is to a large extent why they have been so universally-adopted. Any tax on competitors as a result of "monopolistic" or rather "hyper-competitive" behavior on Microsoft's part has also translated, in most cases, to tougher competition and better products for consumers: I don't think anyone would argue that this industry and the human endeavor have evolved more slowly due to the existence of Microsoft; that would be lunacy.
The European anti-trust suit and other anti-Microsoft actions of the past two decades are, in light of that, largely a joke at the expense of Microsoft and, as it turns out, at the expense of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the human race, and the planet Earth.
-Mike S.
Its not a tax if the corporations get more than that $100 back as increased productivity & i bet most of them would have gotback like $500 worth of productivity for each $100 spent!.
Bill did what capitalism is supposed to do, creating wealth by creating value. This is hard for socialists to understand as they dont understand value creation and think wealth is finite and govt's role is to somehow redistribute it.
Excellent post Anil. The Gates Foundation has saved well over *one million lives* and has only begun its work with innovative, entrepreneurial good works. Critics who question the Gates' sincerity have done no research - the motivations are legitimate and admirable, and have inspired other companies to do the same. For most of us our affluence blinds us to the most pressing problems on earth which are poverty and health in the developing world. If Bill Gates - the wealthiest person in history - overcame this bias, then it is the least the rest of us can do to support his efforts..
We'll miss you Billy G. Here's a dedication, just for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBkxRM9AWJk
Tom
Now with clickable link!
Bill Gates dedication
Tom
Thanks for this post. Timely, a bit biased, but well written.
-Des
TechWatch
He may have donated millions/billions to help fight AIDS etc but he also supports international policies (backed by the Pharmaceutical companies) that kill people; those policies prevent poor countries helping their own people through the use of generic drugs and the like. So he saves millions of people, but helps condemn many millions more.
The John Opel/IBM connection via Gates' mother is an awesome door to have opened.
I use Linux on the desktop, FreeBSD on the server and am a big admirer of RMS. I am against DRM, software patents and closed file formats. I have been appalled by some of Microsoft's business practices.
I also think that Bill Gates is, without hyperbole, one of the single greatest forces for good on Earth. The reason is that I am aware there is a world beyond my geeky interests and that hunger and disease are far more important than them.
Managing wealth and making good or bad decisions at a position of power is a huge responsibility and I think Bill Gates has done it well, being human its obvious that he made bad decisions to get to where he is, but one should always recognize people for the good things that they do. World is a different place because of him, and for one individual to have so much impact on human existance is something to be appreciated.
bend over, bend over, moron!
Yup, no doubt about it. Gates wins the "Egghead of the Year" award!
JT
www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
Bill Gates and the Greatest Tech Hack Ever? that title is just absurd.
if it is a hack then is a social hack, to trick the world into buying their products.
he wanted to build himself a good image for the history, but unfortunately, people that praise him don't have a clue of what really happened since the 80's.
please get informed before posting extremely naive blog entries and comments.
lol your name is anal
Why must there always be some ulterior motive in people's actions? Why can't people just accept that sometimes other people can do something for the good? How can there possibly be something wrong with donating billions of dollars? Quit being so damn critical and appreciate a gracious act. It's pathetic that paranoia and a lack of trust make people question and reject any possible good in the world. He has money so people hate him. I don't know if it's jealousy, spite, or anger, but get over it. Would you rather he keep his billions for himself?
Bill Gates is not responsible to anyone for his wealth - he earned it and he deserves to keep every penny.
If it were for the greater good, his foundation wouldnot be investing in the same corperations generating the problems in the first place. There are lots of documentations about this and no answer from him or the gates foundation.
If you look into history the roots of the "genetic" cleansing are within the usa and the rich families there - who says its not like that in the end.
I know personally of 10 different individuals or small project that took their IP projects to Microsoft to see if they could do a deal and in the end got no fair deal and walked away only to have Microsoft soon there after create clones of their idea. I am now so glad that bill has given 30% of the money he made from those guys ideas to charity. I just did not understand at the time he was taking advantage of these guys that he had a more lofty idea in mind and that this was just part of this long term family tradition of helping the poor. Thanks for letting me know.
Imagine imposing a tax on every corporation in the developed world, collecting $100 per white-collar worker per year, and then directing one third of the proceeds to curing AIDS and malaria. That, effectively, is what Bill Gates has done.
Which would be great if that was what he intended to do. And would be better if he had done so with innovative products instead of using FUD and their marketing clout to stiffle real innovation in the field.
Gates screwed over his competitors and ammassed an obscene amount of wealth and finally remembers he has a soul and we're supposed to forget what sort of crass, manipulative bully he was before?
Bullshit.
From the Wikipedia entry on Al Capone:
"Capone often tried to whitewash his image and be seen as a community leader. For example, he started a program, which was continued for decades after his death, to fight rickets by providing a daily milk ration to Chicago school children. Also during the Great Depression, Capone opened up many soup kitchens for the poor and homeless.... Capone and Nitti were both fans of New Orleans-style jazz music and were instrumental in the rise of such talents as Louis Armstrong and others, who regularly played at Capone speakeasies on the South Side."
So tell me again how philanthropy justifies the actions of Capone and Gates.
Zac, a real christian should'nt be doing anything for his sins (HE'S ALREADY FORGIVEN)... that kindamakes him some kind of heretic
james: so i guess capone did some good in his life. thanks for the note.
B: your not correct. faith with out works is dead. So dont go off trying to say a "real christian" is this or that. peace out! =)
Sure. And tomorrow someone could say that this philanthropy was just part of another major plan to cover tax expenses and market more MS products. C'mon, anyone here believes that a profit company such as Microsoft, with many anonymous executives who have money legally bound to them will just throw 30% of that into charity? If that's to be true, then MS must have at least 40% of their income as profit, otherwise they couldn't sustain themselves as a company.
I may believe 30% of Bill's money went to children, sure it's not like he wants to buy more fancy cars or helicopters and it's a complete different thing than 1/3 of MS income. And it's also his name in game, so he gains a lot of looking good, not to mention he must be a good person.
Well, it's not like it really matters anyway.
I can't thank enough to both Anil's article and Mike Starbird's comments(Posted June 26, 2008 21:04) that followed it. These things needed to be said and understood by all people who've ever had an opinion on Bill Gates or in anyway affected by the company he built - and I'm glad you two have done and excellent job of it!
The insights and opinions articulated by Anil and Mike are the only objective way to look at Bill Gates' and Microsoft's legacy. People who think otherwise, I'm sad to say are either fooling themselves or just doesn't know any better.
Most of the posts here seem to paint either a black or a white picture of monsieur gates. Obviously the truth is far more complicated. For all the ill deeds microsoft has done - well thats business and you must bear in mind, it was not his choice alone. He was afterall, just a kid when he got rich and had to deal with millions of investors desires to make as much money as possible from his work. Now i don't know the truth about this very complicated guy, but what i do know is that his money, whether invested for history or for personal reasons (or both), will help people, just as al capones money did help the poor.
Small minded simplistic comments about someone you don't really know seem foolish to me. People are complex creatures with many motivations. You can be both egotistically inclined and altruistically motivated. I know I am. I was looking at a story of certain rich Microsoft employees yesterday and it struck me how many of these people seem like uber-hippies, over all the sentiment I get is that the executive culture at Microsoft while being overwhelmingly pro-market is at the same time heavily inundated with people of a very leftist bent.
I see no contradiction in wanting to help people at the same time as making money. I see nothing wrong with being ultra competitive or having different ideas about how to run a business or a charitibal organization. I think no one in business is free from sin. If people could just get over the years of hyperbole regarding Bill Gates & Microsoft as well as their own idealogical blinders they might discover that things are not always what they seem.
Link to story I mentioned: http://gizmodo.com/5019527/bill-gates-made-men-the-wild-n-crazy-ventures-of-the-microsoft-millionaires
Autism. Bill G, Autism. The best thing to cure/prevent right now is Autism. Anything the drug companies want to "cure" is profit motivated. Autism is 1:150 kids right now, its the worst pandemic known to man right now, help us find a cure and prevent Autism billg
The insights and opinions articulated by Anil and Mike are the only objective way to look at Bill Gates’ and Microsoft’s legacy.
Wow. The only way. Glad you cleared that up.
Which MS PR agency do you work for again?
I always knew there was a method to his madness...
Thank you, anonymous, for pointing Mike's insight.
As far as I remembered, it ( the donation ) started after US judge decided that MS was guilty and after EU also investigated MS monopoly practices. My point is that when just after Time Warner CEO announced his $100milion donation to the United Nations around 1998, Bill Gates didn't try to emulate him, no news at all.
Interesting thought Anil...
I came across some more interesting reads on Bill Gates:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/27/the-bill-gates-engadgethology/
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11622119
A fantastic post Anil! Really. A great way of looking at it. Reminds me;
And the Great Peter wept, as there were no more lands to conquer.
Excellent. I've been saying this for years.
I just regret that Microsoft the organization really, truly, SCREWS development organizations who are charged with trying to deliver on the kinds of things the Foundation wants to achieve--if they should want to use Microsoft products.
It's right that there is an arm's length relationship between Microsoft and the Foundation but a tragedy that many international development agencies are really SCREWED by Microsoft when it could easily cut them at least as much slack as a US university.
Beside the benevolence is a redness in tooth and claw that is sickening and alienating and it is somehow part of a horrible left-hand / right-hand situation. The joke used to be the Intel giveth and Microsoft taketh away. Well for many you can subsitute the Foundation for Intel.
However, nothing can detract from Gates' humanitarian commitment. What a pity that most of the rest of his peers in the world of IT billionaires have yet to follow his example. Gates isn't just being kind. He's being smart. He recognizes that the future of the planet and its climate and the shared future of all our children depends on social justice for the world's poorest people.
The influence of Melinda should not be overlooked and Warren Buffet deserves immense credit for his rationality and humility in his support for the Foundation. And the parents of all the world's great philanthropists can be remembered too for passing on the values of compassion and giving back. An example to us all.
Oh, please. Educate yourselves. Your naivete is astounding.
Google: Bill Gates Planned Parenthood
The read up on the history of eugenics.
the more one does that goes against his own conscience/morals, the more that person does to try to reconcile it by doing good later on. its a basic
principle of social psychology.
The Greatest Tech Hack Ever was when Bill Gates managed to dupe IBM into signing his almost-illegal contract to buy a pirated operating system.
It's a pity that Gates' (and others') focus on AIDS has distorted the health market in Africa, taking health workers from the general health systems. http://blogs.cgdev.org/globalhealth/archive/health_systems/
Fair opinions, I'd say. When you become the richest man in the world, you become the center of the spotlight and it's easier to think you are a bad person than a good one.
Bill Gates got the MS DOS system from IBM, this system layd the foundation for the whole Microsoft company and the future to come.
All I can say is some people will complain all the time. Are the complainers saying that Bill Gates should have donated 100% of his money to charity already and start living on state benefits or take up a Mcjob somewhere ? How much have YOU donated in life yet ?
one more thing : Bill Gates an Warren Buffett are a million times better for society than the likes of Carlos Slim, Lakshmi Mittal, Ambani brothers etc who will even "arrange" their children's wedding to ensure that every wealth "stays within the family".
"Gates earned his money honestly"
wha?!? do you know *anything* about the company he founded? just asking.....
What's Really Up With This Gates Foundation Thing!
Bill came into my office this morning, he just kinda' sauntered about with that stupid Cheshire cat grin he always has when he's up to something while humming Radar Love. I continued to work, he'll speak when he's ready.
After a few minutes he sighed loudly and flopped down into my lazy-boy (I hate that). He then said,
"It will all be yours in just a little while tatta-head, you have nothing to lose now, go ahead, ask me, ask me what you have been wondering every time you looked at me for the last year or so."
I stopped working, leaned back in my chair, smiled and responded:
"You are correct as usual Bill, so here goes; What in the world are you trying to pull with this 'I'm retiring to feed the poor and help mankind crapola?' We both know that you could care less about third worlders, Linux users and the non-manicured!
I KNOW you Billy-boy! What are you really up to?"
He smiled at me broadly, sat up, pointed upwards and said in that happy erry tone of his,
"SAINTHOOD!"
I was dumbfounded! Fascinated! Captivated! I said, "What?"
His arms started flailing, he spoke swiftly and calmly:
"Don't you get it tatta? Sainthood is like the ultimate thing! Do I want my legacy to the world to be this crap we have been pushing on people for the last couple of decades? I realised that I'm the richest man in the whole freak'n world and every minute of the day people curse my name! They associate me with their frustrations, problems, buggy half-baked copy-cat software thrown together at the last minute, crashes, freezes, angst .... ya see tatta-head! As far as the average person is concerned I may as well be Satan! God knows I've done nearly as much damage!"
He then got up, spread his arms wide and exclaimed,
"That's why I'm leaving it all to you buddy! Nobody likes your Monkey-boy rump anyways, you're the perfect Microsoft CEO!
In another ten years or so nobody will even remember I had anything to do with this, donations will be flowing in, documentaries (good ones) will be made! I WILL BE IMMORTAL!!!"
I smiled at him and snidely said: "Two problems ferret-face! You are not even Catholic! You think that you are God!"
Bill grinned again: "I'm working with the Vatican on the first and the second hasn't been disproved."
We both just looked at each other and said in concert, "What a plan!"
Bill gates is great personality and successful business. Bill Gates was a good hacker and a brilliant businessman. He produced something of great value, namely a standard operating system for personal computers, which had to be a monopoly, given the legal concepts and attitudes of the time the concepts behind Open Source not having been invented yet.
__________________________________
Anderson Smith
Addiction Recovery New York
I believe that much like Microsoft which is a rapidly emerging software anachronism, Bill Gates has erroneously chosen irrelevant charities. Microsoft and Malaria are not issues I would put ahead of climate change. Saving people that are then put in jeopardy again just isn't smart. Much like the software.
Bill Gates is clearly a nice guy, but is chasing his tail again.
Great perspective Anil!
@BillG - Good luck with the foundation. You can make anything possible.
It's a bit too much to credit Gates with "accomplishing" the desktop revolution. Like most of the really big innovations, it was an idea who's time had come.
If it hadn't been Gates and Microsoft, we'd all probably be using Macs right now, or some other system.
Maybe we would even be the better for it. There's a lot not to like about Microsoft.
I appreciate how he's putting time and money into improving the world. From what I've read, Bill and his wife are doing smart and genuine work.
Very interesting Anil,
Thanks.... I didn't know that much about the gates family history and the gates foundation. After reading this it gives me a totally different take on the matter...
Pienso que Bill Gates es un genio y lo admiro muchísimo. Me gustaría algún día poderle conocer y que conociera mi entorno. Ojalá pudiera ayudarme a formar una empresa familiar; yo le pagaría cuando mi empresa se establezca y produzca ganancias.