We all know that Bill Gates is the richest man on Earth. While a lot of people like to hate on guys like him, we can’t help but admire him for his efforts to make the world a better place. Hey, if he has all the money in the world, he had the option to just enjoy life with his family and live a life on the beach. Lucky for us, he has the passion to help people and pursue his advocacies to change the world.
Source: speedchangeWith more than $70 billion in his bank account from his company, Microsoft, good guy Bill focuses on global health, education and development issues together with his wife, Melinda. After stepping down from being the boss in his company back in 2006, he decided to put “full-time philanthropist” in his resume next. With Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, they tackle on different issues affecting everybody in the world (especially those living in the third world).
Source: BBCIn a letter they addressed to the public in the website, they wrote:For each issue we work on, we fund innovative ideas that could help remove these barriers: new techniques to help farmers in developing countries grow more food and earn more money; new tools to prevent and treat deadly diseases; new methods to help students and teachers in the classroom. Some of the projects we fund will fail. We not only accept that, we expect it—because we think an essential role of philanthropy is to make bets on promising solutions that governments and businesses can’t afford to make. As we learn which bets pay off, we have to adjust our strategies and share the results so everyone can benefit.
Source: MSNBut what exactly made Bill Gates the way he is now? What made him want to be a philanthropist? With so many things to do and so much money to spend, why did he decide to donate around USD$28 billion of his money to different causes he believes in?In an interview with Charlie Rose, Bill and Melinda Gates, each shared a defining moment that made him realize that he needed to try to save the world:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sucEddzDwY]Source: Charlie Rose via YoutubeBill:“Well, the idea that a computer was relevant to the problems they were dealing with, where getting enough food, having decent health, getting any electricity, a reasonable place to live, it was pretty clear to me that, hey, I love this computer, and I thought it was neat and kids should have access, but they had to rig up a special generator so I could do this one demo. And they borrowed this generator. It wasn’t going to be there when I left. So the idea that there was a hierarchy of needs … While still believing in digital empowerment, that was not at the top of the list. That was pretty eye opening for me.”Melinda:“We often call each other when we are the road. Almost every day. But it was a different call. Bill was really quite choked up on the phone … Because he’d seen firsthand in a TB clinic hospital how awful it is to have that disease … He literally said to me, ‘It’s a death sentence. To go into that hospital is a death sentence.”
Source: StooglesWhichever story is the real cause, we are thankful that billionaires like him have hearts and isn’t on it for power and greed. So to the next billionaires reading this, may you find it in your hearts to use your money to raise awareness on certain issues affecting a lot of people.
Source: Ventures AfricaOr you could join him and Warren Buffet in their campaign, Giving Pledge, which encourages filthy rich people to donate their money to philanthropic causes!
Young Engineers: Be Like Good Guy Bill Gates
