Bill Gates: Insights on the World’s Richest Man

Bill Gates was a guest at the Ask Me Anything forum of Reddit.com, a social news network site on Monday. His answers to forum members who interacted with him online gave insight into his character and the way he thinks and views the world right now. For a few weeks, Microsoft was in the news daily, because of the speculation and finally the naming of the company’s new CEO. Many were also wondering what would happen to Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and the world’s richest man.

Playful Bill

Bill Gates revealed that should he see a $100 bill on the street he will definitely pick it up. However, when asked how he was going to get by with a salary of less than $100,000 a year, he was not able to give an answer. But he quipped that at his age now (58) he could still leap over a chair, as long as it is a small chair.

The Microsoft co-founder answered questions on his thoughts about life, philanthropy, the snooping done by the government and his return to Microsoft for a hands-on job to assist new CEO Satya Nadella.

He explained that the new CEO brings a fresh look at where Microsoft stands right now, what the company’s strengths and weaknesses are. He was able to see these because as a new person in the job, he can still take a step back and see the company from a different angle. He also said that Mr. Nadella is starting on the right foot.

Nature of his new job

His new role at Microsoft is as technology adviser. He said that Mr. Nadella asked him to chip in and that he is excited about how the new devices and the cloud can collaborate and communicate. This is the current focus of Microsoft, a single OS to work across platforms and devices. Mr. Gates was still the chairman during the invention and start of the implementation of this strategy so it was actually part of his vision, which is now shared by Mr. Nadella. This means that he will be advising Mr. Nadella on the potential of connected devices and how the Microsoft software can work more smoothly across devices.

Providing vision

He said he would make sure that they pick ambitious scenarios and strong architecture for their delivery. It’s looking for ambitious innovations in the development of products for the mobile era, as well as in Office. Skeptics were thinking that maybe Mr. Gates would again stifle the company because of his (still) strong influence in it but he said that his role is more about providing vision rather than worrying about the nitty-gritty of running the company.

Dividing his time

Mr. Gates also clarified during the Q&A at Reddit.com his new work schedule. He said that he plans to give one third of his work schedule to the company and two-thirds to his philanthropy work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He has mellowed and not as driven as when he was younger. He admitted that he enjoys an old-fashioned game of Bridge and washing their dinner dishes.

Photo credit: Taken by World Economic Forum> under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.