In case you have never heard of him, he is one of the wealthiest men in the world. He is the best known entrepreneur of the personal computer revolution. He also ranks as the second most generous philanthropist in America. Bill Gates got an early start in his business and has had a successful career for a very long time. When you are looking for the rules to success, he is one of the best people to ask.
1. Have Energy.
If you are going to start a company, you need to have an enormous amount of energy. You need to have enough energy to overcome the amount of risk that you will be taking on. It may not be necessary to start a company right out of school, you might be able to learn some things if you work in business for a while before you start your own business.
2. Be a Bad Influence.
If the norm is to fall in line and work the normal 9 to 5 every day, be the bad influence, strike out on your own. There is no reason that you can’t start your own business and make it work.
3. Work Hard.
You need to work hard toward achieving your goals every day. Work with focus on your priorities and maintain a routine for work and one for relaxation. Every person who works hard need to schedule time to relax and reflect in order to reset their mind and stimulate ideas.
4. Create the Future.
If you have ideas for products or services for the future, you should take the risk to see those ideas through to fruition. Every product started as an idea, why not yours?
5. Enjoy What You Do.
The key to working and it not feeling like work is that you have got to enjoy what you do every day. If there are tasks that need to be done and you don’t enjoy doing them, outsource them to other very smart people.
6. Play Bridge.
I love playing bridge, I think that anyone who plays bridge is very smart because you learn a lot. I think that anyone who is good at playing bridge is good at a lot of other things. I encourage people to get involved.
7. Ask for Advice.
You need to keep enough people around that when you have a decision to make that you can talk to them and ask them for their advice. It’s good to encourage your friends and colleagues to correct you on your blind spots. Having a small number of people that you can turn to on things is really great to have.
8. Pick Good People.
Deciding who to go into partnerships with is important. You need to have someone that you can totally trust and who has different skills than you do. There are benefits to having a partner who you can bounce ideas off of. Be careful who you pick.
9. Don’t Procrastinate.
When I was at college I used to wait until the very last minute before I would do any course work or study for tests. Then I would work at a fever pitch until it was done. That didn’t translate very well into business. Your clients will not be very happy with you if you wait until the last minute to follow through on your business. Don’t procrastinate.
10. Have a Sense of Humor.
You can take everything seriously and get upset when anyone mentions your name, but what good will that bring about? You need to have a sense of humor and learn to let things roll off your back. If someone challenges you stand up and meet the challenge in a positive way.
If you apply these ten rules to your life and business, you will have an inside look into the life of Bill Gates. How many of them resonate with how you run your business now? I hope that you can see the positive results that these rules can bring about in your business and personal life.
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