Bill Gates, founder and former CEO of Microsoft, says he is “not satisfied” with the way things are running. In a televised interview with Charlie Rose on “CBS This Morning” he says, “There’s a lot of things like cellphones where we didn't get out in the lead very early," reports the L.A. Times on Monday, Feb. 18.
If Bill Gates, 57, is not satisfied, can he be more specific about what has gone wrong?
“Oh, that's too complicated” the billionaire says. “We didn't miss cellphones, but the way we went about it didn't allow us to get the leadership. It's clearly a mistake.”
Maybe the whole area of personal electronics is so much more complex now, that no company can lead it all. Maybe Bill Gates is never satisfied. Gates goes on to say that he and Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s current CEO, “are two of the most self-critical people I can imagine.”
And Gates is quick to mention that he admires Ballmer’s effort. “There were a lot of amazing things that Steve's leadership got done with the company last year: Windows 8 is key to the future, the Surface computer, Bing -- people are seeing is a better search product, Xbox,” he goes on.
“But is it enough?” Possibly nothing ever will be.
There is plenty going on in his life to keep Bill Gates satisfied. He as earned money beyond anyone’s dreams, and he and his wife Melinda now manage a huge chunk of that money as a charitable foundation. Beyond the current polio project, he has plans involving clean energy and classes linking science and history. “I'm lucky enough to have capital. ... I can back some wild ideas,” Gates says. Satisfaction, indeed.
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