#290 Bill Gates

**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. The presenting sponsor of this episode is Tiny. Tiny is the easiest way for you to sell your business. They provide straightforward cash exits for founders. Selling a business is usually an unpleasant experience. Tiny removes all the hassle. In fact, if you go to tiny.com, you'll be able to see the way that they differentiate their offering compared to other people that buy businesses. Make sure you stick around to the end of this episode. The last six minutes is actually a masterclass on product differentiation from Warren Buffett. I actually compare the ideas that Warren writes about in his shareholder letters to Tiny's approach to building their business. And like Warren Buffett, Tiny moves fast. The process to sell your business is very straightforward. You just go to tiny.com, you'll get a response within 48 hours, they'll make an offer within seven days, and then they close within a month. If you're an investor or a founder and you have a business that you think is a good fit for Tiny that you want to sell now or in the future, make sure you go to tiny.com. And one more thing, I want to give you a personal podcast recommendation. Invest Like the Best is one of my favorite podcasts. The host Patrick is a world-class interviewer and he shares my passion for podcasting. Whatever podcast player that you're currently listening to this on, please search for Invest Like the Best and make sure you follow that show. I have two episode recommendations for you. It is episode 293, Mitch Lasky. It goes into the actual business of video games. I thought it was fascinating. And then if you want to listen to the episode Patrick and I did together, it's episode 292 It's called Passion and Pain.
This is not a book about computers. It is a story about people.
A remarkable collection of individuals led by one man, Bill Gates, whose drive, genius, vision, and entrepreneurial spirit created one of the great success stories in the history of American business.
At 35 years old, Gates was at the pinnacle of his young career. Microsoft, the company that he and Paul Allen had founded 16 years earlier, had become the first software company in history to sell more than a billion dollars worth of products in a single year. Gates was the undisputed mastermind of that success. His company's astounding ascension had made him the youngest billionaire in the history of America. A most unlikely captain of industry, he looked as if he could have been 25 years old or younger.
No one underestimated Bill Gates though. Too many people had done that in the past.
Most people already knew Microsoft's history. In 1980, the company had sold the MS-DOS operating system to IBM. The revenue from that partnership gave Gates a guaranteed income stream and the push he needed to make his vision, Microsoft software on every desktop PC, come true.
Not long after he made the deal with IBM, the fiery, competitive Gates slammed his fist into his palm and vowed to put several of his major software competitors out of business.
By 1991, many of those competitors were in full retreat.
That is an excerpt from one of my favorite biographies and the book I'm gonna 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. I first read this book almost three years ago for episode 140 And the reason it's one of my favorite biographies is because it covers the first 36 years of Bill Gates' life. It is about the beginning of the company. And more importantly, it is about the young version of Bill Gates that built the foundation that the Microsoft Empire rests upon today. And the young version of Bill Gates is nothing like the version of Bill Gates that you see in the media today. And after I read the book the first time, the way I described it was that a young Bill Gates was like Genghis Khan in a Mr. Rogers costume. And so let's jump into his early life and how he was when he was a kid, spread throughout the first chapters, all these different descriptions from people that knew Bill when he was younger, some were friends, classmates, family members. And so I'm just gonna give you a couple of examples of how they described him. Aggressive and stimulated by conflict, prone to change moods quickly, a dominating personality with outstanding powers of leadership. If left to his own devices, a young Bill Gates would just sit in his room and read nonstop. Gates read the encyclopedia from beginning to end when he was only seven or eight years old. That is going to be a reoccurring theme throughout the entire book, just how much he reads. And this is a description of Bill from his mother, Mary. Mary Gates in describing her son has said that he has pretty much done what he wanted since the age of eight. And here's another description of a young Bill Gates. Even as a child, Gates had an obsessive personality and a compulsive need to be the best. Any school assignment, be it playing a musical instrument or writing papers, whatever he would do at any or all hours of the day, everything Bill did, he did to the max. That's actually a great one-sentence summary of the Bill Gates that's present in this book all the way up until the age of 36 Everything Bill did, he did to the max. What he did always went well, well beyond everyone else.