Bill Gates, Microsoft Co-Founder, Discusses Early Career and His Lack of Vacation Time

Microsoft’s Bill Gates is one of the richest people in the world and it’s hardly surprising to hear about his early life and how he was a workaholic. Gates gets invited all the time to speak to college eddies, and it’s quite obvious that people would want to pick his brain and ask him how he managed to build a large company and sustain himself for decades.

The Microsoft founder clearly has good moments and bad moments, including regrets that he surely could have realized much earlier. Gates has talked in this post about not taking vacations and prioritizing work over family and friends. He refers to a time in his youth when he had this “work all the time” attitude, which he gradually realized as he got older, and then feeling the need to be with and focus on family.

Microsoft will be a major player in the AI arena, and Gates believes that AI could one day allow people to work just three days a week, giving them much more control over their work and personal lives. The fact that people don’t have to work hard can be a blessing and a disadvantage at the same time. After all, AI could pose a threat to millions of jobs, and that’s the last thing people want when the profile and demands of work change.

That said, it’s interesting to hear someone like Gates talk about work-life balance when another tech giant like Narayana Murthy has advocated a 70-hour work week for Indians if the country is to become a developed nation. The Infosys founder also pointed out that India has one of the lowest working hours in the world, which is not true because people in the country tend to work more hours than those in the United States, such as the United States.

But when you have a tech legend like Gates vouching for a better focus on life outside the office, people listen, and they should.