Dinner on the shores of Lake Washington

I had the opportunity to eat dinner with Bill Gates earlier tonight at his home on the shores of Lake Washington. Frankly, I can write paragraph after paragraph about the utter perfection of his home and the surrounding landscape. Paragraph and paragraph could follow that about Gates's interestingly candid nature.  I'll keep it to the one quote that I captured (at least partially). This isn't verbatim, but it's close and it really hit home with me:

"I'm a technologist. My brain is wired to think about software and how it should work. It's kind of my one shot. I'm not a businessman and most times I don't even know what it means to be a businessman. If you've got this one thing you do that is your passion, that's really the only thing at which you have a shot of being world class."

Comments

[Travis McMenimon]

Ahh yes, Jeff, alot of people (and companies)nowadays try to please everybody by being everything to everybody, but in reality that doesn't always work because it is very easy to lose your identity as a person or a company.

Like Bill I am a firm believer in "knowing thyself" and then fully engaging yourself in your passion. Like Bill says, "If you've got this one thing you do that is your passion, that's really the only thing at which you have a shot of being world class."

Can't wait to hear more about the Bill G. encounter.

[Henry]

C'mon, give us more details on the dinner, his home and what he is like.

[Jeb Simons]

I'm not sure what the hold-up is... maybe they have re-thought their stance on how this is going to actually make the company any money. Or perhaps their lawyers pointed out the liability of providing agents a platform to stick their feet in their mouth. Whatever it is, it's hardly something I'd claim as being "Well done".
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