I read a magazine with a feature asking: "How much is US$1 billion?" A man gave his wife $1 million. He told her to go out and spend $1,000 a day. She did. Three years later she returned to tell him that the money was all gone, and she wanted more. He then gave her $1 billion. He told her to go out and spend $1,000 a day. She didn’t come back for 3,000 years!
One million dollars in $1,000 bills each would make a stack eight inches high. One billion dollars in $1,000 bills would make a stack 115 feet higher than the Washington Monument in the US capital city, which is 555 feet high.
When Philippine STAR once asked a young politician from a wealthy family how much his fortune was, he laughed saying: "If I knew how much I am worth, I am not truly wealthy."
Except for the highly technical gobbledygook used in the conference, which will sound Greek to non-IT people, the conference was lively and those who came were mostly young people in their 20s and 30s wearing informal attire inside a world-class convention hall. This annual event gathered all the top executives and business partners of Microsoft Business Solutions in Asia Pacific, Australia and New Zealand for four days and nights.
When asked to comment on their big boss, many of the executives like Joy Paul Tharakan, Dave O’Hara, Lynne Stockstad, Henrik Petersen and others looked more like young disciples and adoring fans of a pop superstar rather than corporate officials.
Microsoft has acquired Great Plains, Navision and other firms for servicing the business application needs of mid-market businesses which we in the Philippines refer to as small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Using the magic of the Internet, Microsoft Business Solutions simplifies the mundane corporate tasks of accounting, sales, payroll, manufacturing, customer service and others for small and medium companies. Now that upgrading SME technologies can be done at lower costs from Microsoft Business Solutions, how will the Philippine government confront the challenge of encouraging the creation of new SMEs and a culture of entrepreneurship nationwide?
Gates has devoted himself to grand civic causes. Last year alone, he donated $37.5 million to combat hepatitis B in China and $100 million to fight the HIV/Aids epidemic in India. Einstein was passionately devoted to pacifist, civil rights and Zionist causes.
Since 1998, Gates has given away or pledged $25.6 billion to charities and research. Is he uncomfortable with his wealth or has this got anything to do with the vicious black propaganda and anti-trust lawsuits against him in recent years, or is he really idealistic? He has repeatedly declared that he will leave the bulk of his wealth to philanthropy, not to his three kids’ bank accounts, although he will ensure that they will live comfortably for the rest of their lives.
He said: "The idea that I would take the sizable portion of my fortune and have them inherit it...I don’t think that would be to society’s benefit or their benefit. I don’t think it is constructive to grow up having billions of dollars."
Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer, who dropped out of Stanford Business School in 1980 (to his father’s dismay) to join his friend Bill Gates, said that Microsoft then had only 30 employees. Today, Microsoft has 50,000 people operating in over 78 countries. Ballmer was appointed by Gates as the chief executive officer (CEO) in charge of overall management and business strategies while Gates, the founder, appointed himself as "chief software architect." He now devotes his time with the geeks and the nerds in Microsoft’s product development and research to create new technological wonders. Ballmer said that Microsoft in 2002 spent $15 billion in research and development (R&D) alone, an amount which could already pay for the Philippine government’s unmanageable budget deficit for three years!
Contrary to what cynics claim about people of great wealth having no happy family lives, Bill Gates is the happy father of three kids and husband to wife Melinda. He is no jet-setter and no partygoer, preferring to spend his free time with his family. He has authored two bestselling books, learned to become an average golfer and has a passion for playing bridge. He loves to read. He has even taken singing lessons!
One of his closest friends is the world’s second wealthiest billionaire, Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway, whose wealth is estimated at $35 billion. Like Gates, Buffett has announced that he plans to leave to philanthropy the bulk of his fortune upon his death. Surprisingly, both Gates and Buffett are vocal in their opposition to proposals to take away estate inheritance taxes on heirs of the rich, believing that this is an equalizer which has kept free enterprise viable in America. They also believed that repealing estate taxes would have negative effect on donations to charities.
Singaporean statesman Lee Kuan Yew recounted that when Bill Gates visited his residence, Lee asked him what to expect next from Microsoft. Gates replied that in the near future he wants to create a computer that human beings can talk to and a computer that can answer back intelligently. Will this talking computer and other forthcoming Microsoft innovations be far more exciting than his multi-billion dollar charities?