Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University in 1974 and a year later co-founded Microsoft - a software company that would later make Gates the richest man in the world (for some time).
If you aspire to become a successful entrepreneur, you need to understand how they think and act. Here are 10 business lessons from Bill Gates:
# 1 Opportunities always arise
In 1968, Bill's Lakeside School in Seattle invested $ 3,000 in a state-of-the-art computer. During this period, there were very few schools that had computer labs. If Lakeside hadn't bought a computer, then young Bill couldn't have discovered his love of programming and created Microsoft.
# 2 Share your vision with your team
In May 1995, Gates was so convinced that the Internet was Microsoft's future that he felt compelled to share it with his employees. He believed the Internet is a tsunami that will change all the rules. Gates took the time to share this idea because he realized how important it was for the entire team. The result: Windows 95 came with Internet Explorer.
# 3 Make the most of luck
Bill took advantage of the coming opportunities and devoted thousands of hours of hard work in order to become the one to create a successful software company.
# 4 Quality control is crucial
As Microsoft grew, Bill Gates began hiring more programmers. But he didn't stop revising and often rewriting every line of code. Bill made sure that Microsoft always delivered quality software. Even if he was tempted to let them work alone, he didn’t forget to check them.
# 5 Revolutionary ideas are done, not said
In the early 1980s, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer traveled across the country, holding seminars explaining that graphical interfaces were the operating systems of the future - but no one believed them. Attitudes changed rapidly in 1984, when Apple launched the Macintosh. It became the first successful commercial computer with a graphical user interface.
Thus, in 1985 Microsoft was able to launch Windows 1.0. If you have a revolutionary idea, start developing it now, so that you are ready to show it at the right time.
# 6 Persevere
Microsoft launched Windows 2.0 in 1987, but the real success came in 1990, when Windows 3.0 appeared. It brought an impressive profit to the company, which sold over 10 million units in two years.
# 7 Bite more than you can chew
In 1975, Gates called a computer company called MITS and told them that he had developed a BASIC program for their microcomputer. MITS was interested to see a demonstration of the software. This was a problem because the promised software did not actually exist. Bill quickly developed it, introduced it, and made the sale.
# 8 Learn from dissatisfied customers
Over the years, Bill Gates has had a lot of dissatisfied customers. But even if people complain about Windows, they still use it anyway. Windows has been the world's leading operating system since 1990. Why? Because Microsoft continues to respond to customer feedback and constantly improve its products.
# 9 Marketing is simple
People don't buy a product because it has a great logo or a low price. They buy because they have a problem and are convinced that the product will solve it.
# 10 Don't learn from success
Obviously, you should think about your successes and learn from them. If you can recognize the factors that contributed to that success, you should be able to repeat it.
Gates argued that success can limit the vision, causing one to become too confident and unprepared for the new challenges of the future.
You should not ignore the patterns of your initial success. But you don't have to blindly stick to particular actions or strategies, just because they worked
in the past.
All in all, Bill Gates is a phenomenon. Could you become one too? Why not? All you have to do is give yourself this chance and believe that you can do it.
