30 Inspiring Bill Gates Quotes and Sayings to Make it Big in Life

The Business Tycoon turned Philanthropist

Bill Gates may be recognized over the globe for being the Chairman and Chief Executive of Microsoft — the world’s largest and well-known personal-computer software company but these days the business magnate is appreciated for his philanthropic and humanitarian ventures. In 2000, the most popular entrepreneur of the PC revolution established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, described as the world’s largest private charity.

After nine years, he teamed up with Warren Buffett to introduce “The Giving Pledge”, under which these two and even other billionaires pledged to donate at least half of their total wealth to philanthropy. Since then, hundreds of billionaires over the globe, including Mark Zuckerberg, Mackenzie Bezos, and Elon Musk have signed up for the pledge, vowing to act and build a stronger world.

Gates Wisdom Corner

Bill Gates has also authored books such as The Road Ahead (1995), Business @ the Speed of Thought (1999), Unleashing the Power of Creativity (2006), How to Avoid a Climate Disaster (2020) and also runs a personal blog which keeps getting a lot of admiration from people around the world.

Best Life advice to live by

At 65, Bill Gates continues to be an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, leader, humanitarian, and a learner. Being a philanthropist, he is incredibly influenced by his parents. At a convocation speech at Harvard University in 2007, he shared the advice that his mother had expressed to him and Melinda: “From those to whom much is given, much is expected” Achievement and power didn’t go to Bill Gates’ head, though it made him wiser. Bill Gates leads globally both in net worth as well as charitable donations.

Following are some Bill Gates quotes that reflect his absolute brilliance

1. “Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.”

Underestimating anyone is not a good idea. You never know when he may become superior to you in the days yet to come.

1. “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

It’s effortless to get caught up in the excitement of success, but success on its own has very little to teach you. It’s necessary to pay attention to your failures and learn from them to keep going forward. Success deserves to be celebrated, but failures must not be overlooked

1. “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”

Gates rightly claimed that success is an illusion of the minds of men who are going through a smooth patch in their lives. Success is a fruit, sweet enough to bring euphoria in your lives, but it can run away in the blink of an eye. Nothing is permanent in life except change.

1. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

Gates noticed that the obstacles on the way are great opportunities to improve. And, in business, unhappy clients have the most to teach you regarding how you can improve your products and services.

1. “We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”

Gates often talks about the need for continual self-improvement. It’s crucial to have people in our lives who give us genuine and constructive feedback. This is how we can keep growing to become a better individual.

1. “To win big, you sometimes have to take big risks.”

Success can never be achieved sitting idle and empty, but by initiating small steps. You need to take risks to make it big in life.

1. “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”

It rightly proclaims that to be lazy, a person has to be smart because s/he finds a way to get the work done in an easier way.

1. “Patience is a key element of success.”

Success generally comes after a lot of trial and error and failures. Successful individuals are those who have got the patience to stick through all the frustrating and difficult moments along the way.

1. “The belief that the world is getting worse, that we can’t solve extreme poverty and disease, isn’t just mistaken. It’s harmful.”

Bill Gates quotes make us realize that even the most challenging obstacles have solutions and if you’re in a position that you can help people, then you should definitely do. Gates and his wife Melinda proved this by contributing over $45 billion to charitable causes.

1. “Everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast, or a bridge player.”

We can improve a little on our own, but with a coach or mentor to help and guide us, is the best way to ensure that we are continuing to live up to our full potential.

1. “Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world, if you do so, you are insulting yourself.”

We are all blessed with extraordinary gifts and we have our ways of contributing to the greater good. By trying to copy someone or comparing yourself, you’re short-changing yourself and depriving the world of all you have to offer.

1. “I can understand wanting to have millions of dollars, there’s a certain freedom, meaningful freedom, that comes with that. But once you get much beyond that, I have to tell you, it’s the same hamburger.”

Everyone wants to be wealthy, but past a certain point, money isn’t your source of happiness neither adds more meaning to your life. Hence, Gates continues to donate much of his wealth to those who need it more.

1. “Television is not real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.”

Television often makes starting and running a business look easy and exciting, but it’s a lot of hard work that we are unable to see. You should not get caught up in the narrative around self-employment. It takes a lot of discipline to make your dreams a reality.

1. “Life is not fair — get used to it!”

Life won’t be smooth, it is no less than a roller coaster ride. It is full of rough patches and it is better to accept and work on it, rather than being dissatisfied.

1. “If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.”

This aptly differentiates the nuances of the school and college lives and the complications faced in professional lives. The latter is staggeringly colossal to the former.

1. “When a country has the skill and self-confidence to take action against its biggest problems, it makes outsiders eager to be a part of it.”

Survival in business requires a synergy of skills and when your country has got that, more and more people desire to be a part of it.

1. “Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point.”

There comes a point when you’ve got everything you ever wished for and then money has no real utility, you can’t do much with it.

1. “Our success has really been based on partnerships from the beginning.”

Working together and helping others win is the beginning of moving towards success. The best collaboration can lead to something great, that is difficult for someone to achieve all by himself.

1. “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”

Believe in your people, empower them to build on their strengths. When leaders will realise that their role is to empower and to help individuals to sustain their energy and then place it where it matters most, it’ll provide a new focus.

1. “The general idea of the rich helping the poor, I think, is important.”

Even if you have deep pockets or even if you don’t, with that heart of yours you can become a giver by helping the needy. When fate hands us money we should use it to help the poor because no one has ever become poor by giving.

1. “Embrace bad news to learn where you need the most improvement.”

Practice the philosophy of continuous improvement, use your failures as lessons to get better every single day.

1. “If I’d had some set idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?”

When you are in the race for excellence, there is no finish line. It is a continuous journey. If you achieve your goal, find another.

1. “Whether I’m at the office, at home, or on the road, I always have a stack of books I’m looking forward to reading.”

As they say, ‘Today a Reader, Tomorrow a Leader’. Reading is no less than therapy. The more you read, the more you learn and the more you get to know and its importance should not be overlooked.

1. “Who decides what’s in Windows? The customers who buy it.”

Your customers are no less than your partners in your mission, they are your company’s greatest asset.

1. “If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.”

Appearance is a great deal. If you can’t make the functioning up to the mark then at least make the appearance engaging that might create a demand.

1. “Power comes not from knowledge kept but from knowledge shared.”

Sharing knowledge means doubling your knowledge. It is a way of giving something without losing anything. Enjoy sharing as power is not gained by hoarding it.

1. “I am results-oriented.”

Being a results-oriented person is a key characteristic of high performers. Prioritize your work, plan it right, and focus on the outcomes.

1. “A fundamental new rule for business is that the Internet changes everything.”

In this evolving technology-oriented world, the Internet plays a major role and everything is connected through the internet. Things are just one mouse click away.

1. “In my view, investing in public libraries is an investment in the nation’s future.”

Without libraries, there’s no past and no future. A Library is one of the necessities of life. It is more than a place where books are stored, it is a pool of knowledge and a place that builds great leaders.

1. “Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.”

Intellectual property can be utilized to create a moat but it has a small shelf life. If you are not investing constantly to renew your intellectual property, it’ll be difficult for you. Better yet, invest constantly in creating new intellectual property to replace what will inevitably expire.