Bill Gates: How to accelerate history (Part 1)
Masters of Scale
WaitWhat
4.6 • 4.4K Ratings
🗓️ 7 November 2019
⏱️ 46 minutes
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Summary
How did Bill Gates scale BOTH a global business and a global philanthropy? He spotted an inflection point in history — and accelerated it. What does that take? A great idea, great timing and also: Great partners. Because even Bill Gates doesn’t go it alone. In Part 1 of this special two-part episode, Bill reflects with Reid on the founding and growth of Microsoft — how he not only spotted an inflection point (hello, personal computers) but accelerated it to massive scale (forget computers, let's talk platforms). There’s timeless wisdom in Bill’s ability to identify inflection points, build strategic partnerships and just work harder than everyone else. (In Part 2, Bill reflects on scaling the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the different lessons learned between the two.)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's Bob Safian. You've been hearing me as the host of rapid response in this feed for a few years now, |
| 0:07.8 | with short newsy interviews alongside the deeper dives of Masters of Scale. Well, I'm excited to share that rapid response is expanding into its own feed. |
| 0:17.0 | We'll be putting out shows twice a week, focusing on the urgent issues that business leaders are dealing with in real time. |
| 0:24.8 | So search for rapid response in your podcast player |
| 0:28.0 | and subscribe to make sure you get all our episodes. |
| 0:31.2 | I'll see you on the other side. 6, 4,457. |
| 0:44.4 | You have a hose across the road and every time a car goes over it. |
| 0:49.6 | 6,458. It counts. That's the unmistakable voice of Bill Gates whose name is as |
| 0:59.8 | entwined with a history of computing as Neil Armstrong's is with a history of spaceflight. |
| 1:07.0 | Bill is the person who brought us Microsoft, Windows, PowerPoint, Excel, Xbox, and of course. |
| 1:15.0 | Trafodata? |
| 1:20.0 | Trafodata? |
| 1:21.0 | Okay, so Bill's first company didn't have the name recognition of Microsoft. |
| 1:27.7 | But it is catchy, like Faleo Fish or Wondorama. |
| 1:32.4 | Bill is taking us back to his high school days. Like many teenagers, Bill and |
| 1:38.1 | his best friend Paul Allen were consumed by a love that spilled into obsession. |
| 1:44.3 | The object of their affection, the computer, |
| 1:47.6 | which had not yet become a household object. |
| 1:50.9 | When Paul and I were just messing around with computers, we were looking for computer |
| 1:56.4 | times, we'd sneak into labs up the University of Washington day and night. |
| 2:01.5 | During one of these covert ops, Bill and Paul were introduced to the intricacies |
| 2:06.9 | of counting traffic. The technology was a bit primitive. |
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