What important lessons can leaders learn from Bill Gates?

Bill Gates success has been the subject of much discussion, as he is an innovator that has been able to navigate the celebrity that comes from creating such an important product. In fact, many leaders can learn a lot from Gates. Below are just a few. For one, he never let his success distract him from the mission he set before him. Many times, he says success is very intoxicating, so intoxicating that it dupes people into believing that they are infallible.

One of his most popular quotes states: Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” When he said this, he was talking about the overconfidence that happens after success and how in business ethics should not be influenced by success.

Another lesson that leaders can learn from Gates is to be vision-oriented. There are definitely instances when this vision manifested itself to the public. Probably, the most glaring would be the way he dealt with licensing his operating system MS-DOS. As opposed to relinquishing his rights, he held onto the patent and went onto build an empire. Finally, he also made a point to make sure that he used time effectively. He often stated that you can always make more money, but time was something that was limiting.

For this reason, he did not attend meetings that could go on without his presence because time was very important. In many ways, this is true, especially for leaders who spend an inordinate amount of time in meetings.