O J's Corner : Reflections

Mega Soft Bill Gates

Suppose a hard-working man works for 14 hours a day and he is worth a million dollars per hour. His worth is further computed to 300 dollars per second.

Should he drop a $ 1000 bill on the ground, it is not worth his time to bend over and pick it up, assuming that it takes four seconds to bend down and pocket the bill. Of course, he can afford to hire people to pick up the bill for him.

Wonder, who would be this chap? None other than William Henry Gates III, born on October 28, 1955, who married Melinda French Gates on January 1, 1994. People call him simply Bill Gates. And they have three children.

Forbes International Rich List has ranked him as the world’s riches person for the last 12 years running.

Fortunately the richie does not think much of his wealth or time the way his moment’s worth is computed.

He is chairman, Microsoft Corporation, and its former chief software architect and  chief executive officer. He has announced his retirement from day-to-day activities at Microsoft, to take up philanthropic activities along with his wife.

He will devote his energies to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation activities for which he has committed $ 28.8 billion.

Hats off to him who has bestowed half of his personal fortunes to philanthropic deeds, including fight against AIDS, malaria, TB and other diseases in India and elsewhere.

Famously known as a Harvard drop-out, don’t think for a moment that he was a lazy absentee from classes. He was too brilliant to spend his time in classes when he could, on his own, launch software entrepreneurial venture.

He introduced Windows in the eighties and revolutionised computer applications at the click of a mouse.

Call him wonder kid, whiz kid or wizard, this software genius has proved to be mega soft to problems confronting the world such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

In 1999, Gates wrote Business@the Speed of Thought, a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in drastically new ways. The book has been published in 25 languages and is available in more than 60 countries.

His speed is in terms of the frequency of thought. No wonder Gates was briefly jailed in Albuquerque for racing his Porsche 911 in the New Mexico desert.

His love of computer and software is unsurpassed. But he has also founded Corbis, which is developing one of the world’s largest resources of visual information, a comprehensive digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe.

Gates has turned a new leaf in the history of billionaires, for whom lust for power, riches and influence is insatiable. The more they indulge in, the greater will they lust after these. They don’t know when to stop.

But here is the mega soft moneyed man for whom money is not the be-all and the  end-all. His calling is to serve humanity now. I am sure he will prove to be the most innovative service provider.