Bill Gates is an American investor, business magnate, philanthropist, and author. He is also the co-founder of Microsoft along with Paul Allen in 1975, which later became the largest PC software company in the world. While he was pursuing his career at the Microsoft, Bill Gates held the position of CEO, chairman, and chief software architect. He was also the individual largest shareholder until May 2014. There are also several books that are co-authored and authored by Gates.
It was since 1987, Bill Gates was included in the “world’s wealthiest people’’ by Forbes, and he was also known as the wealthiest man in the world from 1995 to 2007, then later again in 2009 and has been till 2014. His wealth doubled from US$40 billion to more than US$80 billion in between 2009 to 2014, and from 2013 to 2014 his wealth exceeded by US$15 dollar. Currently as of February 2017, he is the world’s richest man with an approximate worth of US$85 billion.
A famous quote from one of his many sayings is, “It is fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lesson of failure”.
Inside Story of Bill Gates Heroic Success in Leadership:
Today we will be throwing light on Bill Gates leadership style and how he became legendary in his field of work as in the “personal computer revolution”, and he is known as one of the best entrepreneurs.
Leadership has nothing to do with one’s position in a company, or the hierarchy. It has nothing to do with seniority, job titles, personal attributes, and management either. Leadership is a continuous process through which one individual inspires, motivates others. A saying goes good leaders are not born, they are made. So, what made Gates an extraordinary leader, what leadership qualities he possessed that made him a legend today?
- Stay Focused: What Bill Gates showed us is focus is one of the most important things. Nearly over thirty years Bill gates demonstrated the importance of transparency of idea and execution. He did not deviate from the domain that he clearly understood i.e. software, unlike many of his contemporaries.
- Work on Your Passion: If anything is worth doing then one must go for it. Whatever one is doing be it simple or complex one must do it with utmost excellence. Bill Gates did not put all his effort just to become a billionaire, rather he worked he worked hard because he was passionate about what he was doing and working for. This was one of Bill Gates Leadership Style
He always had a fascination towards software programming and this particular passion motivated him to work in this field. He used to work on it for hours after returning from school. Sometimes he even bunked classes for coding. These long hours to find code helped him gather knowledge and gain experience, which resulted in building up Microsoft. This proves that if you love anything you do, no one can stop you from being successful. His love and passion towards computer software helped him to create Microsoft.
- Immense Hard Work: Bill Gates said, “Patience is a key element of success”. This means he knew success doesn’t come overnight and one must work tirelessly in order to be successful in life. From his early life stories it is heard by many that Gates started his Microsoft Company out of his own garage. This surely will make any one think that a kid, who with least knowledge started a business from those small experiments that too in a garage, would one day come off with a million dollar Business Company.
The truth behind his success is he spent years after years working on coding and programming before he built Microsoft. He worked day and night from that garage experimenting with codes and gathering knowledge. He worked to find out solutions on programming that would reach out to people globally. It was his years of hard work and knowledge that paid off in creating Microsoft.
Leaders don’t only just think and sit on the idea, they go roll their sleeves and work on it to make it happen. Leadership involves action and reciprocating the effort into something that will result the good idea to achieve revenue. Even after the success of Microsoft, Bill Gates did not pause from working for hours; he worked more thereafter to understand the targeted audience. He focused on developing the product that would speak for itself to the business, understand consumer needs and education.
- Looking forward and Evolving Continuously: Journey of success doesn’t always run smooth. So, no matter what happens a leader should always look forward to tomorrow. Despite his success he had to deal with the litigation of anti-trust that claimed Microsoft as a monopoly. After twenty-one years of hustle in the court system, finally in 2011 the case was dismissed after giving multiple threats of breaking the Company. During the period of legal battle Gates did not stop pursuing the strategy of working on his invention throughout. He focused on future rather than getting himself distracted by the present challenges that he was facing then.
He never got overwhelmed with his success; rather he continued developing his work and continued evolving. He also reminded everyone by saying, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”. A leader should always be dynamic. He stayed relevant throughout which made him an exceptional leader.
- Always Giving Back: What makes Bill Gates Leadership Style indistinctive and legendary is he thought of serving the society and help people. He talked about showing people the right path, shared experiences, and also helped with financial resources for betterment of the people and society.
The foundation of Bill Gates and Melinda Gates donated billion of dollars to the world that helped children and adults in many ways in fulfilling education and other necessities.
In order to be remembered as a legend one must do something of significance and not just financial success. There are many successful leaders out there, but Bill Gates will always be remembered as one of those Legends in Leadership.
