Thread by @mar15sa

The best quotes from the @BillGates interview in 'How to Lead' by David M. Rubenstein:

On comparing building Microsoft to running the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:
"They have more in common than people might expect: the idea that you find an innovation, really stick to it, build a team behind it, have some setbacks and successes - that theory of change...

I'd say they're equally difficult. You always know you could be doing better, that you should learn more, be building the team and thinking about things in a better way. You see the positive results, but you always want to do even better."

"I'm a weird dropout, because I take college courses all the time. I love Learning Company courses. I love being a student...

At Harvard, there were smart people around, and they fed you, and they gave you these nice grades that made you feel smart. I feel it was unfortunate that I didn't get to stay there, but I don't think I missed any knowledge, because... I was still in a learning mode."

On whether he would have missed his chance if he had not dropped out:
"At the time I certainly thought so. I thought, 'Boy, this is so obvious that software's going to be important. If I don't literally write this software now, and get ahead of everybody, we won't be unique.'...

There was this incredible sense of urgency. As it actually unfolded, if we'd come out a year later, I'm not sure it would have made that much difference."

"I always thought, 'We're one step away from not leading here. We've got to keep doing better.'"

On Warren Buffett's contribution to his foundation:
"It let us raise our level of ambition even beyond what we would have done without that, which is, by most definitions, the most generous gift of all time."

"In my career, this evolution of being an individual performer, then a manager, then a manager of managers, and then setting broad strategy - you have to get used to the fact you don't have as much control."

"A lot of people were saying that we should come up with a way that philanthropists can learn from each other and talk about how they've built staff and picked causes - not that they would give to the same things, but that the quality, and even...

how early people would get engaged, would be enhanced by people getting together and making a public commitment to give the majority of their wealth away. That's become the Giving Pledge group."

"I feel I've been super lucky, so I'd feel bad to want to go back and change anything. At Microsoft I wish I'd done phones better, or done search better. There are many things where other companies seized the opportunity, and did an amazing job...

Microsoft did enough that it's a phenomenal company. But no, I don't think back with remorse, because I think the mistakes help you learn."

But I don't think it's important for me to be remembered specifically. I do hope that infectious disease is largely eliminated as a problem, so that nobody's having to talk about it and people can focus on other issues. That would be a huge, great thing...

If our work has helped improve U.S. education, that would be a huge, great thing. Most important is that my kids feel I was a good father and gave them an opportunity to go create their own lives."

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https://twitter.com/mar15sa/status/1305890363996069889?s=20