24 inspiring quotes from Bill Gates, who turns 60 today
Bill Gates' personal net worth — an estimated $79.5 billion — makes him the richest person in the world.
On Wednesday, he turns 60 years old.
Gathered from 20 years of interviews, these quotes show how Gates went from computer geek to software titan to an activist whose Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given away $34.5 billion in grants since it started in 1997.
This is an update of an article originally written by Drake Baer and revised by Steve Banna.
On the journey thus far
"It's pretty amazing to go from a world where computers were unheard of and very complex to where they're a tool of everyday life. That was the dream that I wanted to make come true, and in a large part it's unfolded as I'd expected. You can argue about advertising business models or which networking protocol would catch on or which screen sizes would be used for which things. There are less robots now than I would have guessed."
On why Microsoft succeeded
"Most of our competitors were one-product wonders ... They would do their one product, but never get their engineering sorted out.
"They did not think about software in this broad way. They did not think about tools or efficiency. They would therefore do one product, but would not renew it to get it to the next generation."
On working with Steve Jobs
"Steve and I were very different. But we were both good at picking people. We were both hyperenergetic and worked super hard. We were close partners in doing the original Mac software, and that was an amazing thing, because we had more people working on it than Apple did.
But we were very naive. Steve promised us this was going to be this $499 machine, and next thing we knew, it was $1,999. Anyway, the Mac project was an incredible experience."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
