BILL GATES  ：Co-chair,Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

June 12, 2013 

·                                閱讀人數(shù)1,193,069

·                                贊成人數(shù)7,594

·                                反對人數(shù)3,357

Tweet

inShare37K

I’m looking forward to sharingposts from time to time about things I’ve learned in my career atMicrosoft andthe GatesFoundation. (I also post frequently on my blog.)

Last month, I went to Omaha for the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholdersmeeting. It’s always a lot of fun, and not just because of the ping-pongmatches and the newspaper-throwing contest I have with Warren Buffett. It’salso fun because I get to learn from Warrenand gain insight into how he thinks.

Here are three things I’ve learned from Warren over the years:

1. It’s not just aboutinvesting.

The first thing people learn from Warren, of course, is how to think aboutinvesting. That’s natural, given his amazing track record. Unfortunately,that’s where a lot of people stop, and they miss out on the fact that he has awhole framework for business thinking that is very powerful. For example, hetalks about looking for a company’s moat—its competitive advantage—and whether themoat is shrinking or growing. He says a shareholder has to act as if he ownsthe entire business, looking at the future profit stream and deciding what it’sworth. And you have to be willing to ignore the market rather than follow it,because you want to take advantage of the market’s mistakes—the companies thathave been underpriced.

I have to admit, when I first met Warren, the fact that he had this frameworkwas a real surprise to me. I met him at a dinner my mother had put together. Onmy way there, I thought, “Why would I want to meet this guy who picks stocks?”I thought he just used various market-related things—like volume, or how theprice had changed over time—to make his decisions. But when we started talkingthat day, he didn’t ask me about any of those things. Instead he started askingbig questions about the fundamentals of our business. “Why can’t IBM do whatMicrosoft does? Why has Microsoft been so profitable?” That’s when I realizedhe thought about business in a much more profound way than I’d given him creditfor.

2. Use your platform.

A lot of business leaderswrite letters to their shareholders, but Warrenis justly famous for his. Partly that’s because his natural good humor shinesthrough. Partly it’s because people think it will help them invest better (andthey’re right). But it’s also because he’s been willing to speak frankly andcriticize things like stock options and financial derivatives. He’s not afraidto take positions, like his stand on raising taxes on the rich, that run counterto his self-interest. Warreninspired me to start writing my own annual letter aboutthe foundation’s work. I still have a ways to go before mine is as good as Warren’s, but it’s beenhelpful to sit down once a year and explain the results we’re seeing, both goodand bad.

3. Know how valuable your timeis.

No matter how much money you have, you can’t buy more time.There are only 24 hours in everyone’s day. Warren has a keen sense of this. He doesn’tlet his calendar get filled up with useless meetings. On the other hand, he’svery generous with his time for the people he trusts. He gives his closeadvisers at Berkshire his phone number, andthey can just call him up and he’ll answer the phone.

Although Warrenmakes a point of meeting with dozens of university classes every year, not manypeople get to ask him for advice on a regular basis. I feel very lucky in thatregard: The dialogue has been invaluable to me, and not only at Microsoft. WhenMelinda and I started our foundation, I turned to him for advice. We talked alot about the idea that philanthropy could be just as impactful in its own wayas software had been. It turns out that Warren’sbrilliant way of looking at the world is just as useful in attacking povertyand disease as it is in building a business. He’s one of a kind.

Photo: Bill Gates