#140 Bill Gates (the Making of the Microsoft Empire)

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one-time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets. They're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high. So I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today. And I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. At age 36, Bill Gates has become the most powerful and feared player in the computer industry. And in the process, the richest man in America.
Revenues of his Microsoft Corporation topped out at $1.8 billion in 1991 His operating system has become the standard in computing operating systems. And his software dominates much of the industry. Now worth over $7 billion, Chairman Bill has revolutionized the software business. Hailed as a computer genius and a brilliant entrepreneur by some, and a bully by others, Gates' aggressive management style and fiery spirit can intimidate competitors and employees alike. Hard Drive chronicles Gates' rise in the industry from computer whiz kid to software giant. His early years as a high school entrepreneur, his creation at age 19 with Paul Allen of the world's first computer language for a personal computer, and Microsoft's rocky decade-long marriage to IBM.
Part entrepreneur, part salesman, Gates is a brilliant, some say manipulative businessman who according to friends and foes alike simply must win.
Gates has emerged as the undisputed leader of the computer software industry, and Hard Drive examines what kind of leader he is. All right, so that is from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Hard Drive, Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire. And it was written by James Wallace and Jim Erickson. And before I jump into the book, I want to read you a bunch of quotes that are on the back cover. And it says, what people say about Bill Gates and Hard Drive. So all these different people and quotes from within the book describing how they view Bill Gates the person. So it says, Gates is tenacious. That's what's scary. He always comes back, like Chinese water torture. His form of entertainment is tearing people to shreds.
The next quote, a bad personality and a great intellect. In a place like Harvard, where there are a lot of bright kids, when you are better than your peers, some tend to be nice and others obnoxious. He was the latter.
Another one. I half jokingly say there's only one person with fewer friends than Saddam Hussein. And that is Bill Gates.
Number four. I remember thinking he was not going to mount to anything. He seemed like a hacker, a nerd, with those glasses and his dandruff, sleeping on tables. I obviously didn't see the future as clearly as he did. And the fifth quote. Imagine an extremely smart billionaire genius who is 14 years old and subject to temper tantrums.
And the last one. Bill Gates wants it all. And he's on his way to getting it. So I wanted to start there, because I think that's a good introduction to what this book about. It is not an entire biography of the life of Bill Gates. Obviously, he's still alive.
To that end, it does remind me about, reminds me of this book that I covered all the way back on Founders No. 76, which is Return to the Little Kingdom, which was a history of the first few years of the Apple Corporation. At the time the book is published, we don't yet know how important the life of Steve Jobs is and how important Apple is to become. But it gives the reader an insight into the very beginning of what becomes one of the most important companies ever created. So in this case, this is gonna give us an insight into the first, I would say it mainly focuses on Bill Gates from around the time he was 19 till he was about 35 years old. And the reason I bring that up is because as I was reading the book, I was also reading and watching the latest interviews of Bill Gates. And it's almost as if the person described in the book and the person that the Bill Gates of today, they're not even the same person. The Bill Gates is described in this book is a psychopath. And I think what this book does best is it gives us an insight into the personality Bill Gates had when he was actually laying the foundation of Microsoft. So I wanna jump right into 11 year old Bill Gates talking to his pastor and he just says a sentence that I think describes definitely who he was as he's building Microsoft. And he says, I can do anything that I put my mind to. More about his personality when he was a kid, aggressive, stimulated by conflict, prone to change moods quickly, a dominating personality.