It's an interesting blog post on the Harvard Business Review site. I like Apple products a lot when they work but somehow have had an enormous (and costly) amount of bad luck with their products. I've also worked alongside of Microsoft since the mid-1990s and have seen all sides of that company, good and bad. What has impressed me about Gates is how bad his reputation was for charity back when I first started and how good it is today.
Jobs no doubt was impressive for what he did with Apple but for me, I count myself in the camp of Gates who has done a lot more for the world with his riches. In the big picture is there really a serious comparison of helping the poor with billions or creating a cool new toy that created billions for a business? Not for me.
Bill Gates stepped away from Microsoft in 2006 and, despite the company's growing troubles in the face of the mobile disruption, has devoted his genius to solving the world's biggest problems, despite the fact that solving those problems doesn't create profit or fame.* Gates committed his talents to eliminating diseases, increasing development standards, and generally fighting inequality.
Since 1994, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation amassed an endowment of over $31 billion in funds to fight the world's most difficult issues. But it hasn't merely accumulated funds, the foundation has already given away over $25 billion. Those aren't trivial numbers. In seventeen years, the foundation has raised and given away more than one-tenth of Apple's extraordinary market capitalization. While the developed world takes things like clean water, basic healthcare, and the availability of food for granted — there are billions of human beings that don't have such fundamental resources.
