Bill Gates has accomplished more wealth and success than anyone of our generation. But even more importantly he has worked tirelessly to improve lives and prevent deaths through his generous charitable contribuitons. I have left out a couple of his more well-known quotes and instead tried to focus on those lesser known quotes. I hope you will find that these resonate with some of your own valuable life lessons you know to be true. Here is a healthy dose of what has made Mr. Gates successful and things we should pay close attention to if we wish to succeed at our own dreams and desires.
1. Focus
“The most important work I got a chance to be involved in, no matter what I do, is the personal computer. You know, that’s what I grew up in my teens, my 20s, my 30s, you know, I even knew not to get married until later because I was so obsessed with it. That’s my life’s work.”
We start life with many big dreams–things we want to accomplish, create, build and experience. But if you ask anyone past the age of 40 what happened to all the dreams they had, they will most likely answer: Life. This is true; life has a tendency to just happen. But it happens because we make choices. The life you create and design for yourself is going to accumulate from the choices you make over time. Sure, there are unexpected things that can derail dreams. But we can control where we put our focus, and if we choose to put one dream ahead of another. Those are all choices we get to make individually. Bill Gates knew that to meet his dreams and see his most important work achieved he would need to take a different route than most people. To do that, he put some other dreams on the back burner. Ask yourself: are the choices I am making today truly supporting the dreams I have for tomorrow?
2. Feed your mind
“I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.”
I especially love this quote because I believe books are filled with pure mystical magic. How do you know the life you want to design and the dreams you want to achieve, unless you are exposed to the vast colorful rainbow of opportunity that this wide world holds? You can read science fiction, poetry, crime, drama, self-help books, love stories, or whatever your heart desires–just read. The imagination that created an entirely new set of possibilities for your mind to explore is magic made for growth. You just don’t know what you will read that will spark a new love or desire in you. Influence comes from some of the most unforeseen obscure encounters and experiences. We can’t all have a life that affords us to travel the world, but we all have at our fingertips the world through words. Reading is the compass to your future.
3. Discipline
“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next 10. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.”
In today’s world we are lulled into a desire for instant gratification, a “show me the results now” kind of mindset. If we don’t see results from our efforts within a very short timeframe, we are apt to bail. Our entertainment, technology, news, social interactions, relationships and education move at warp speed. We have lost all gumption to stick with the process, dig our heels in and just work without lifting our heads. This quote is point on. We are impatient in our expectations and give up far too easily. Mr. Gates is telling us to stick out the hard times in the beginning and, before you know it, your efforts will compound multiple times over with results. But, we can’t give up too soon just because we crave instant gratification in today’s fast click world.
4. Be yourself
“Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world…if you do so, you are insulting yourself.”
We waste so much time in envy and desire of what others have. Instead of letting their unique light be appreciated and honored, we pity ourselves and putter about feeling sorry that we don’t have legs to the sky, luxurious thick hair, or huge almond shaped eyes. We see others with prosperous jobs, witty humor, loads of friends, and the list goes on and on. And while we create this meaningless list of what we are not, we are slowing suffering a slow death of what we are. We were each especially designed to fulfill a particular balance at this point in time and place in the universe. We are destined to be here and be exactly what we bring to the world. Quit listening to the voice of fear and envy. Rejoice in other people’s gifts, and in your own without reserve.
5. Give back
“There is a certain responsibility that accrued to me when I got to this unexpected position.”
Once you have any inkling that your feet feel solid on the ground for even a brief period of time, you have the responsibility to look around you, reach out for someone struggling and throw them out your hand. Someone helped you along your journey. They gave you a pep talk, instilled confidence, gave you wings to soar or an opportunity to fail. Nothing you have achieved of value has been a solo performance. Any time you are able to help anyone else it is your duty to help. And the best part is that every single thing you give out in this world comes back to you ten-fold. Every smile, every kind hand held, every hug, every heartfelt thought for goodness comes back directly to you, multiplied in strength. What we give to others we give to ourselves. What we withhold from others we withhold from ourselves.
I hope you enjoyed exploring these powerful quotes from Bill Gates, and have some new excitement in designing and generating your own powerful destiny. We all have a footprint to leave here. You get to decide and imprint your own beautiful design on this world.
