What does Bill Gates do on a daily basis? What are his strategies, and what can we learn from him that we can apply to our own lives? I was eager to watch ‘Inside Bill’s Brain’ the new Bill Gates Documentary on Netflix to find out if there were any useful strategies to learn from “America’s greatest ever businessman”. Sorry, Donald, it’s not you.
Read on to discover the nine strategies you can to add to your own life from this exceptional billionaire.
But first a quick synopsis.
Who do you spend time with?
Motivational speaker, Jim Rohn once famously said: “You’re the average of the five people that you spend the most time with“.
So I thought I’d spend 3-hours last weekend watching the new Bill Gates Documentary on Netflix to see if I could learn a few new habits from one of the most successful people on the planet.
As it turns out, more recent research shows that we are in fact the average of all the people that we’re surrounded with.
Perhaps I should just leave it on repeat.
Why learn from Bill Gates?
A permanent fixture at the top of Forbes’ rich list for the past 20 years, the Microsoft founder currently has a bank balance of around $96.5 billion.
Ninety-six billion! To put that into context, if you could save $100,000/year, it would take you 960,000 years to save 96 billion.
He must be doing something right.
But much more than his success in business and finance. Bill’s philanthropy work is unrivalled in terms of effort, financial spend and goals.
His work ethic is exceptional and along with the likes of Steve Jobs at Apple, he has literally shaped the way that we live today and is working tirelessly to shape the future too.
Having spent a lifetime as a business and thought leader, he’s definitely someone who we could all learn a thing or two from.
Bill’s character
Although ‘Inside Bill’s Brain‘ isn’t the most in-depth or personal documentary you will ever see, there are plenty of interesting insights and pleasing anecdotes about his life-story to keep the viewer engaged.
Throughout, we learn a few of Bill’s character traits. How competitive he is, how happy and optimistic he was as a child, but also how withdrawn and socially awkward he can be around others.
How he thrives on complexity, adores solving problems and possesses a tenacious never give up attitude. Many of these traits he attributes to his mother – a very strong, successful and inspirational woman herself.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
What I didn’t know and what this docuseries really highlighted for me though, was just how much he and his wife Melinda are doing for global health through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Since stepping down from Microsoft in 2008 Bill now focusses much of his time on the foundation which amongst other things works toward eradicating Polio, tackling sanitation issues in some of the poorest countries in the world and finding solutions to the climate crisis. Talk about goal setting!
In fact, it’s almost unbelievable to grasp the size and scale of the work that he and Melinda are undertaking. So whether you believe he’s a predatory capitalist or not, they deserve serious kudos.
Modelling behaviour for success
As you would expect, Bill Gates possesses an exceptional brain that functions far above the norm and can store, compartmentalise and retrieve huge amounts of complex information on a whim.
Meanwhile, I’m lucky if I can remember where I went on holiday last year. Did I even go on holiday last year? I’ll have to ask the wife later.
But despite his obvious intellect, the documentary does reveal a few simple habits that we mere mortals can implement into our own lives, in our quest for success.
After all, one of the most effective ways of scaling success quickly is to model the behaviour of successful people.
Nine strategies of a billionaire
1. Read daily
The most obvious and evident habit that Bill maintains is reading. He reads feverishly. As a massive consumer of knowledge, it’s through reading that he makes sense of the world.
We might not be able to consume the sheer volume of books he devours with a retention rate (some suggest) of about 90%, but by being curious about the world and reading on a daily basis we are arming ourselves with knowledge, and knowledge is power.
When we read, we’re not only learning, but we’re exposing ourselves to new ideas, and perspectives, we’re connecting our brain, boosting our imagination and creativity while also lowering stress and improving our brain’s functionality.
However, Bill doesn’t only consume vast amounts of information – he processes it too. Thinking, writing, planning.
2. Have thinking/processing time
Bill compares his brain to a computer’s CPU (it’s central processing unit) where calculations and instructions are carried out.
With all that reading and knowledge going in, he needs somewhere for all that information to be processed and so he spends a lot of time converting that information into how to solve problems.
Back in the 90s when growing Microsoft he would take Think Weeks where he would disappear to a small cabin on the banks of the Hood Canal to sit in isolation and read, think and write.
It seems to me like this is where a lot of the magic happens. Getting away from the everyday hustle and bustle, the noise of life. Taking the time to sit back and look at our lives, goals and problems objectively and working out which way to go next.
I mean, how often do you sit with your thoughts and a notebook in peace and quiet?
While you and I probably don’t have the time or resources to go and spend 7-days in a log cabin, there are a few simple ways we can find a little quiet time in our day.
One option would be to wake up a few minutes earlier than usual or if you’re not into early starts, perhaps take a quiet lunch break in the park or turn off your devices 30-minutes before bed.
When we take the time to think about a specific subject, we’re able to understand our problems more clearly and ponder what we want from life. Only then can we begin to work towards solutions.
3. Organise your time well
Time is the one commodity that even the richest in the world can’t buy more of. A limited, finite resource that we all share.
We all have the same 24 hours in a day – only some people use it more effectively than others.
Therefore Bill Gates doesn’t waste time. In fact, he appears to be near-obsessive about being super organised and on time. He’s all too aware that time is running out.
During his early days at Microsoft, he would work day and night. Skipping meals, sleeping at his desk, first in, last out.
Time is precious. Don’t waste it.
Personally, I find that my most productive days are the ones that have been planned the night before. By using my free Reminders App, I schedule and plan the following day the night before. Hour by hour, task by task.
When you know what you need to do and when it helps to remove delay and doubt so you can focus on getting the important stuff done.
For example, I’ll ensure that the most important tasks of the day are first on my list. Everything is assigned a dedicated time to work on that task.
There is also time scheduled for the end of the day for catching up with emails and any other unexpected tasks.
Here’s a useful article on the subject.
4. Give back
The famous Personal Development Coach, Tony Robbins once said (and repeated many times over) that “The secret to living is giving.”
Intertwined deeply into Bill’s character is the belief is that every person is equal. With his vast fortune, connections to people in power and knowledge Bill has made giving back his mission to help the world solve some of its most challenging problems. Poverty, disease, climate change.
By giving back to communities and those less fortunate than ourselves, we are doing more than just donating time or money. Giving creates meaning in our lives, and when we have meaning we have more respect for ourselves and others, we feel a stronger connection to the world and therefore, become better human beings.
5. Move
Bill’s best ideas are formed when he’s moving. After all, motion causes emotion. So whether he’s pacing the floor, taking a walk in nature or playing tennis, being active on a daily basis is an important habit that we can all easily adopt.
Being outside in the fresh air can also help to alleviate stress and can boost your mood and creativity.
Related: 12 reasons why running is awesome
6. Be focussed and committed
There are literally thousands of things in the world that we could focus our time on. But in order to succeed we need to be focussed and committed to just a handful.
Therefore you need to decide what’s most important to you and put your best energy there.
By his own admission, Bill is fanatical and will often focus all his energy on solving one problem. For a long time, his focus was simply: How do you write good software?
We all know how well he answered that!
Find your focus, know your outcome, ask yourself the right questions and stay committed to the cause.
7. Know the right people
One of Bill’s closest friends and business partners is Warren Buffet, a self-made billionaire who made his money in the stock market.
In the film, he says that it’s “Very important in life to have the right friends if they make you a better person than you would otherwise be.”
I couldn’t agree more.
That’s not to say we should all ditch our current friends and hang out with a bunch of stock traders, God, no! But studies have shown that a person’s chances of becoming obese, for example, increased by 57% if he or she had a friend who became obese in a given interval.
This shows just how important our social circles are. We tolerate what we’re exposed to regularly. So if you’re hanging out with people who prefer to exercise, work out and eat healthily, then it’s much more likely that you’ll do those things too.
Equally, if your mates prefer sitting around drinking beer every night, then you’ll probably end up doing that too.
And we all know how important our health is to lead a happy and fulfilling life, right?
8. Have relentless optimism & belief
Bill possesses a relentless sense of optimism and belief that seems to be hard-wired into his very core.
He takes chances. He has a sense of fearlessness. and will take on enormous responsibilities. Like eradicating polio from the face of the earth, for example.
If he fails, then he undermines the whole system. Who would ever try again knowing the billions of dollars and the huge amount of work involved?
You’d have to be crazy to take on that level of responsibility? Or super confident, driven and optimistic.
But he has that confidence. He just isn’t afraid to fail.
Towards the end of the documentary, the Director explains to Bill that not many of his current projects are going that well.
Polio: Millions of dollars spent yet there are still new cases of the disease. Sanitation: New toilets are still very expensive and not making the impact they should. Climate Change: His nuclear fuel ideas aren’t really getting off the ground.
In fact, when you see the bigger picture, not many of his projects seem to be that successful. Bill’s response? “We need to work harder”.
9. Work hard
Bill immerses himself in his work.
As they built Microsoft, Bill and his team would work hours and hours, foregoing food and sleep. He didn’t believe in weekends or vacations. Just focusing on the work.
There’s a die-hard relentlessness within him. When things are going wrong and the options are either to quit or work harder, Bill will always choose to work harder.
All of our hopes and dreams will remain as just that unless we’re putting in the work to make them come true.
It’s action that wins.
One of my favourite quotes is by the Scottish 5000-meter runner, Eilish McColgan: “If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”
Bill Gates Documentary Netflix – a conclusion
I think overall, this documentary was a few hours well spent, and although it wasn’t easy to extract these strategies – from a documentary that focussed more on what he does and has done rather than how he does it – I believe that these nine strategies would be a worthwhile addition to anyone’s life.
You have to give the man the utmost respect.
Inside Bill’s Brain ends with a quote from his mother, Mary Gates, which I think is probably the most eloquent phrase in the series.
“Each one of us has to start out with his or her own definition of success, and when we have these specific expectations of ourselves, we’re more likely to live up to them. Ultimately, it’s not what you get or even what you give. It’s what you become.”