Bill Gates – My Personal Hero, Essay Example

When the history of personal computing is discussed, it is impossible not to mention Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. I came to know about Bill Gates in my life much earlier than Steve Jobs and my first introduction to Bill Gates was not due to his contributions to personal computing but rather his status as the richest person in the world. But as I learnt more about Bill Gates, I realized there was much more to the man than his immense wealth. As I look upon his life so far, it is clear Bill Gates has always strived for the maximum impact whether in his career as a computing visionary or his second career as a philanthropist.

Both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs set out to change the world at about the same time. While Jobs focus on more on quality, it was not the best approach to getting the computer to every home since Apple’s products were expensive. Bill Gates understood the key to putting computer in every home is making it affordable for everyone even if it means some compromise on quality. I have heard people accusing Bill Gates of being obsessed with wealth while Steve Jobs was more genuinely passionate about the products than sales maximization. It may be true that Bill Gates strategy was also driven by monetary incentives but eventually his self-centered strategy ended up doing more good for the society. Bill Gates strategy probably worked for the same reason capitalism works since greed drives hunt for greater efficiency. Personal computing would still have become a household product over time without Bill Gates but it might have taken much longer. Thus, I have greater admiration for Bill Gates than Steve Jobs because Bill Gates had the wisdom to realize the benefits of striving for the maximum impact by focusing on sales maximization. In fact, I believe Steve Jobs success during his second tenure at Apple is also due to borrowing some lessons from the Bill Gates strategy of making Windows a household product and using it to promote other Microsoft products.

In his second career as a philanthropist, bill Gates has again strived for maximum impact. Bill Gates initially focused on introducing computing technologies to Africa on a wide scale but his personal observations made it clear Africa had other more important problems such as healthcare to deal with (Bort, 2015). Thus, he decided to use his wealth to address the diseases in the third world that are non-existent in the first world such as malaria and polio. Bill Gates could have taken the route taken by many other rich people such as funding art galleries or donating tens of millions and sometimes even hundreds of millions to put their names on building. But instead he has been putting his money to good use, positively affecting the lives of hundreds of millions of people in some of the least developed countries in the world. I also admire Bill Gates for the fact he has decided to leave most of his wealth to the society instead of leaving them to his children as many rich families do. This may not be easy decision to make but Bill Gates has the wisdom to realize his money will be put to much better use if it is left to the society. He has even urged other rich individuals and families to do the same through his The Giving Pledge (The Giving Pledge).

Bill Gates may have given billions to society and may have similarly positively affected the lives of billions through his professional career but one doesn’t have to be a billionaire to seek inspiration from Bill Gates’ life. The simple lesson is to carefully evaluate the consequences of different choices available to us and then opt for the ones with the greatest benefit to the society. And sometimes, though not always, such choices may require us to rise beyond our personal interests for the greater good of the society.

References

Bort, J. (2015, January 21). Bill Gates Talks About The Heartbreaking Moment That Turned Him To Philanthropy. Retrieved June 16, 2015. Web.

The Giving Pledge. (n.d.). Current Pledgers. Retrieved June 16, 2015. Web.