Sequoia Capital investor Michael Moritz says Bill Gates' early career showed focus few founders match.
Moritz Recalls Gates Cutting Off Distractions Early
In the epilogue to "Leading: Learning from Life and My Years at Manchester United," Moritz wrote, "The most extreme example of this blistering desire to concentrate on his business that I ever encountered was the young Bill Gates. After he had bought a TV to watch educational videotapes, he eliminated the temptation to watch shows or movies by disconnecting the tuner." Moritz said the ability to tune out distractions paid "enormous dividends" for Gates and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT).
Gates has described the same "blackout period," saying he stopped watching TV and listening to music for about five years in his 20s to stay locked on software.
Seven-Minute Commute Became Another Focus Test
That discipline overlapped with Microsoft's launch. Gates and Paul Allen registered "Microsoft" in New Mexico in November 1976, when Gates was 21, and soon moved the company to the Seattle area.
Moritz has offered another glimpse of Gates' intensity. In a 2019 Stanford Graduate School of Business interview, he recalled Gates driving him to the airport in the early 1980s in a car with the radio removed. Gates said he didn't want music or news intruding on a seven-minute, 32-second commute he used to think through Microsoft's problems.
Focus Fueled Wealth, Then A Massive Giving Drive
Gates has said his focus was powered by curiosity and constant learning, habits he later applied to philanthropy.
Forbes estimates Gates could be worth about $1.2 trillion today if he had kept his original Microsoft shares. Instead, he has sold and donated most of them and now owns about 0.9% of Microsoft, valued at around $28 billion. Gates and ex-wife Melinda French Gates have given about $60.2 billion to their foundation since 2000. Gates says he plans to give away virtually all remaining wealth by 2045 under the Giving Pledge he signed alongside Warren Buffett.
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