15 quotes by Bill Gates to make you rethink and pledge to work towards a better world
Microsoft Founder Bill Gates is often in the news these days as he invests his fortune in making the world a better place for the poor. These 15 quotes by one of the world’s top philanthropists are sure to inspire you to do more.
Bill Gates may be known the world over for founding Microsoft but these days the business magnate is better known for his philanthropic and humanitarian ventures.
In 2000, the best-known entrepreneur of the PC revolution set up the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reported to be the world’s largest private charity. Since then, it has donated large amounts of money to various charitable organisations and scientific research programmes.
Nine years later, he teamed up with Warren Buffett to start The Giving Pledge, under which the two and other billionaires pledge to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropy. Since then, hundreds of billionaires worldwide, including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Mackenzie Bezos, have signed up for the pledge, promising to act and build a better world.
Bill Gates, who has authored books including The Road Ahead (1995) and Unleashing the Power of Creativity: A ‘This I Believe’ essay (2006), also runs a personal blog.
On Gates Notes, he shares learnings from people he interacts with and the books he’s read. He also puts forth where “world inequity” stands and his views on it.
At 63, Bill Gates continues to be an entrepreneur, a leader, a philanthropist, humanitarian, and learner. As a philanthropist, he is greatly influenced by his parents. At a commencement speech at Harvard University in 2007, he shared some advice that his mother had given to him and Melinda: “From those to whom much is given, much is expected.”
Success and power didn’t go to Bill Gates’ head; it made him wiser. We bring you a list of the top quotes by Bill Gates on leadership, success, helping others, and being a global citizen.
- Humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity, reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.
- Is the rich world aware of how four billion of the six billion live? If we were aware, we would want to help out, we’d want to get involved.
- The returns in investing in the poor are just as great as returns in investing in the business world, and have even more meaning.
- We can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative capitalism.
- Intelligence is not quite as important as I thought it was, and it takes many different forms.
- People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented. Didn’t they?
- If you believe that every life has equal value, it’s revolting to learn that some lives are seen as worth saving and others are not. The market did not reward saving lives and governments did not subsidise it.
- I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone but on how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.
- As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.
- You can’t get people excited unless you can help them see and feel the impact.
- Surround yourself with people who challenge you, teach you, and push you to be your best self.
- If you think things are getting better, then you want to know what’s working, so you can accelerate the progress and spread it to more people and places.
- Once you’ve found a solution that works, catalytic philanthropy can harness political and market forces to get those innovations to the people who need them most.
- We believe in a world where innovation is for everyone, where no child dies from a disease it’s possible to prevent.
- It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.
(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)
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