Bill Gates’ new memoir, Source Code, details his journey from childhood to co-founding Microsoft in 1975. Gates describes working 80-hour weeks, coding software, and constantly fearing that any mistake could jeopardise Microsoft’s success.
Bill Gates shared that he did not feel truly successful until he was 42, despite being a billionaire for over a decade. In an interview with CNBC Make It, he recalled that by 1998, he finally felt confident that Microsoft could survive even if mistakes were made.
He admitted that, for years, he felt like he was “one mistake away from failure”.
This is not the first time the example of Bill Gates working long hours has come out. An old Reddit discussion from 2021 wondered if the Former Microsoft CEO was truthful about working more than 14 hours a day.
The Reddit discussion on Bill Gates’ work ethic in his 20s sparked mixed reactions. Some users doubted his claims, suspecting he might be exaggerating his dedication to appear exceptional.
One commenter pointed out that many self-made billionaires are workaholics, sacrificing everything to build their businesses. Others suggested that while working more than 14 hours daily is possible if someone had resources like assistants and financial securities.
A few users argued that self-help books often promote unrealistic work-life balance ideals, stating that success often comes from extreme dedication.
“Not all people work the same way. For someone very driven and with very concrete goals, like Bill Gates, it may have been hard to even think of doing something else but working. Yes, normal people should balance their work and free time, but some people just want to work that badly,” commented one user.
Working long hours ‘just unhealthy’
According to some, Elon Musk also claims to work long hours. Some questioned how people like him and Gates avoided exhaustion. Others believed that Gates’ statement was likely true but pointed out that working such hours may not be healthy.
“That's kind of an issue for a lot of the popular "self-made-billionaires". They are basically workaholics who don't care about anything else than their companies. That's not "showing off", that's just unhealthy,” commented one user.