Recently, I watched a film called “Inside Bill’s Brain” on Netflix.
It was about Bill Gates, who spoke about his childhood, life-or-death mission to get better sanitation to developing world, and his success. It was inspiring to say the least!
I was particularly interested about his life of success. I share the view that success is about having accomplished goals. And Bill has accomplished obviously many goals! And I noticed his life of success has 3Rs.
REFLECTIONS
Bill was constantly doing reflections, examining in his mind every aspects of his life – thoughts, words, actions, and even emotions. His wife, Melinda, describes him as someone who has a complex mind, and he “thrives on complexities”. Bill would carve out “Think Weeks” at the Hood Canal to be alone to go through everything in his mind. Bill attributed Microsoft’s success to these “Think Weeks” by himself. It enabled him to lead with clarity of vision and knowledge, to lead with confidence and courage, and to constantly seek dialogues and partnerships to work towards his goals. Obviously, he had achieved so much! And he continues to set goals and works hard to achieve them.
How apt is this for my new journey here? Even such a busy man make time to reflect, much less Joes like myself?
VIDEO: Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates
RELATIONSHIP
Bill has strong and deep relationships with people, and they were observed to span over years. These include people none other than his wife, childhood friends like, Paul Allen, also co-founder of Microsoft, and even Warren Buffett, who needs no introduction! As we all know, Bill met Melinda when she was working in Microsoft. Bill took a long time to consider if he should commit himself to Melinda in a relationship. He attributed it to how his parents committed to each other until a ripe old age. When he decided to commit to her, Bill gave his best to Melinda in and through all things. Melinda became like the anchor in his life. With regard to friends, I recall a segment where Bill was said to be in a feud with his friend Paul, for a couple of years! When Paul turned ill ins later years. Bill reached out to him, and poured out his heart, and shared that their friendship was above all pains and emotions. They continued to keep in touch thereafter.
RESPONSES
With so much insights from the constant reflection he does, and achieving so much success from it, Bill does not rest on his laurels; he responds in a big way from the insights gathered. He went in search for the pains in humanity, and made plans to eradicate those pains in a big way. We are talking specifically about polio and poor sanitation world wide, leading to diseases. This is still an on-going project and mission. It is really amazing the extent to which research and manufacturing go into these endeavours of Bill’s.
Contributed by Nicholas Gabriel Lim