Bill Gates explains the keys to his success in growing Microsoft

In an interview with CNBC Do it published Wednesday, the tech billionaire revealed that his definition of success includes his software and its global impact.

“Back then, it was just: Is my code really good? Go? And can this company show the world that these microcomputers are big?” Gates said.

His opinion also spoke to his evangelism about the potential of personal computers to transform business and society. While the PC’s impact is clear now, it wasn’t obvious to everyone four decades ago, even to some of the early innovators.

In 1981, IBM released its PC and estimated that it would sell only 241,683 units over a five-year period. Instead, it sold about 3 million in that period and hundreds of millions over the course of a decade.

Of course, all those PCs needed software, and here Gates saw an opportunity, applying relentless uniqueness.

“It was the magic of software,” he told CNBC. “And I was willing to focus my life, in my 20s, on just software, just one job.”

In fact, he and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen had a vision of putting a computer on every desk and in every home, “which sounds boring today, but back then (was) completely crazy,” Gates added.

Looking back on these early years, he characterized his vision of success as “very Microsoft-centric”, describing his life during his 20s as “all Microsoft, all the time”.

Gates stepped down as CEO in 2000, relinquished his day-to-day duties in 2008, stepped down as chairman in 2014 and left the board in 2020. Now focused on his philanthropy, he said the definition his definition of success has evolved to include “adding net value” to the world as well as empowering other people.

During a commencement address to Northern Arizona University’s graduating class of 2023, he expressed some regret for his approach to work in the early years of Microsoft when he said he didn’t believe in weekends or vacations and took pushed others to put in long hours.

“As I’ve gotten older—and especially once I’ve become a father—I’ve realized that both in terms of doing your best work and having a great life, that intensity doesn’t it was always appropriate,” he said. “Don’t wait as long as I did to learn this lesson.”

But he still plans to stay busy, telling CNBC earlier that he plans to continue working for at least another two decades, health permitting, following in the footsteps of Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett. That’s because retirement “sounds awful” to Gates.