Bill Gates has found what he wants to do for the rest of his life, ready to sacrifice his career to do it

Bill Gates and Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft in 1975. Years later, the American billionaire never thought of doing anything other than running the property he built.

“If someone asked me in my 20s if I ever wanted to retire early, I would immediately say that person is crazy. I have absolutely no intention of that,” Bill Gates shared in a post a few years ago.

Running Microsoft has become an obsession. Bill Gates said that in the early days of founding the company, he often bought bottles of Tang orange powder to eat except for meals and save time.

“Instead of going out to eat, I took advantage of pouring orange powder into my hands and licking them to save time on lunch breaks. That’s why I often get orange powder on my face,” he said.

This partly speaks to Gates’ passion for work. At that time, he had almost no weekends and no vacations.

“In the early stages of Microsoft, I worked like crazy. I’m not married, I don’t have children. I didn’t bother with the weekend until I was about 30 years old. I don’t mind vacations at all,” Bill Gates said in an interview.

Due to high expectations on employees, Bill Gates is rumored to be a boss who “bullies” subordinates. One of the most famous anecdotes is that he has a habit of keeping track of the hours his employees work, even memorizing each person’s license plate number to know when they arrive and leave the office.

“When I was your age, I didn’t believe in vacations,” Bill Gates told students during his graduation ceremony at Northern Arizona University. “I don’t believe in weekends. I force everyone around me to work long hours.”

However, everything changed when he turned 30 and started dating Melinda – who later became his wife but is now divorced. Gates gradually relaxed and moderated his harsh personality.

“After I met Melinda, married her, and had children, I saw the world more open and thought about what I should use my wealth for,” Bill Gates said.

In 2000, he and his wife founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to reduce global inequality. They transferred $20 billion of Microsoft stock to the fund and started going abroad to research health issues. Gradually, Gates realized that his career would no longer revolve around Microsoft.

“Building Microsoft was done when I was very young. It’s always been a job that I put my whole heart into until the age of 53, when I switched to working full-time for the charity,” Bill Gates said.

In the end, Gates retired from Microsoft nearly a decade earlier than originally planned. He once wrote: “The 2001 speech was a huge step forward in helping me make the decision to retire and it was also the day when I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.”

In a personal Twitter post last year, the Microsoft founder announced that he would donate $ 20 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This charitable donation brings the fund’s total endowment to $70 billion, making it the largest charitable foundation in the world. Bill Gates also affirmed that he is willing to donate his entire fortune to charity.

“In the future, I plan to use all the money I have for charity. I will gradually leave the list of the richest billionaires in the world, “said the Microsoft founder.

According to Business Insider, Bill Gates has intended to give away all of his fortune for a long time. He did not even intend to leave an inheritance to his children.

In an interview with the British TV program “This Morning” in 2016, Bill Gates gave an explanation for the somewhat strange decision. Instead of receiving a huge inheritance, Bill Gates’ children will receive a good education to be able to stand on their own two feet. He affirmed that his children still have a certain financial security to never be poor.

“Leaving inheritance to children is not good. Future generations will not have the motivation to work hard and contribute to society,” he said, adding that the children understand their father’s decision and feel proud that Bill Gates has used his fortune to benefit the world. help the poor in the world.

“My kids will enjoy a great education and a financial means to make sure they never get poor, but they have to go out and build their own careers,” the billionaire said. emphasize.

By: CNBC, BI