A Peek Inside Bill Gates' Head

It takes a certain set of character traits, personality, and drive to build a company into a global software powerhouse. Over the years InformationWeek and other media outlets have done their best to examine the complex man behind the Microsoft empire.

Now, as Microsoft co-founder and chief software architect Bill Gates prepares to leave his day job to spend more time on the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we take a look back at the features and quirks that propelled him to the top of the software industry.

Toughness In The Conference Room

One year ago, InformationWeek's John Foley wrote about Gates:

Microsoft's success has its roots in Gates' leadership. He has been determined, persuasive, and intimidating.

"The story of how Gates leveraged IBM's desperate need for a PC operating system into a billion-dollar business is a case study in carpe diem, a Horatio Alger-style tale of pluck and luck," wrote InformationWeek's John Soat last year, in "Bill Gates' Legacy: Winning Through Intimidation".

Barbara Darrow, a veteran Microsoft observer who covered the company for years, agrees, "It's said that Microsoft was built on innovation and coding, but really it was outlawyering IBM."

Flexibility, Willingness To Learn

If he is unyielding in the boardroom, Gates has the ability to accept good advice when it behooves him. "He used to be a terrible public speaker," said Darrow, who has interviewed Gates twice. "And he can be extremely moody, but Pam Edstrom and Melissa Waggener [of Waggener Edstrom Worldwide] pushed him around a little in areas where he wasn't confident."

Early on he accepted training to become "less cantankerous. He's shown that he's willing to take direction from people who know things he doesn't," explained Darrow.

Financial Mojo And Persuasive Powers

Gates' riches are legendary. He has been at or near top of the Forbes 400 list every year since 1993. A year ago he lost the World's Richest Man title to Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim. When the Gates fortune slipped to $58 billion in March, Forbes dropped him to the number three spot on its list. But his extraordinary financial power and influence reach far beyond his own assets. In 2006, Gates' friend Warren Buffet announced a $31 billion gift to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The money aura surrounding Gates floats both upward and downward. From time to time, items featuring Gates or having belonged to him have been auctioned on eBay. DVDs of Gates' 1998 deposition in the U.S. Department of Justice's case, U.S. v. Microsoft, were put on the block in 2005. As was a 1990 Lexus purported to have been his.

Lofty Ambition

After 33 years at Microsoft, will charitable work be enough to keep Gates challenged? InformationWeek's Alex Wolfe doesn't think so.

Or maybe he won't. Last spring, former Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi hitched a ride aboard a Soyuz rocket for a 10-day mission to the International Space Station. Rumors that Gates would follow quickly orbited Redmond after Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin blurted in a live interview, "Charles said that Bill Gates is also preparing to visit space." So far, it's still only a rumor. Dogged Determination

Like anyone else who uses e-mail, Gates is vexed by spam. Unlike the rest of us he thought he could put an end to it. This wasn't a lark. Gates announced at the 2004 World Economic Forum in Davos that spam would be toast in two years. For proof that he's a mere mortal: check your inbox.

Common Touch

For further proof, see how Gates uses Web 2.0 sites YouTube and Zillow. " Isn't it nice to know that while the world's richest man may have his mind sharply focused on the future, he also wastes time on the same Web sites as you?" wrote InformationWeek's Michael Singer.

Alas, Gates abandoned his FaceBook account last winter -- even after Microsoft had invested $240 million in the social networking phenomenon -- because he was slammed with too many requests from would-be friends.

Sense Of Humor

One of the most undervalued characteristics a corporate leader can have is a good sense of humor. In this video spoof of Napoleon Dynamite, shown at the Microsoft Developers Conference in 2005, Gates shows that not only is he a good sport, but his comic timing isn't too shabby.

And in this star-studded clip shown at CES 2008, Gates shows how his last full day at Microsoft might unfold:

Finally, watch how Gates interacts with corporate nemesis and fellow tech titan Steve Jobs during an interview at the 2007 All Things Digital Wall Street Journal Executive Conference:

For more insight into the Gates psyche, read John Foley's Bill Gates Revealed and Dave Methvin's Why Bill Gates Left Microsoft.