You Have a Past — Does It Work for You?

Innovators are not a product of happenstance. Instead, they are a by-product of the compounding effect of a series of early childhood influences.

Photo by João Silas on Unsplash

In his ground-breaking book Psycho-Cybernetics, Dr. Maxwell Maltz argues that whether we realize it or not, each person carries within himself an image of him — the sort of person I am. He referred to it as Self-Image.

This self-image is created innocuously by the thoughts, beliefs, and experiences the person has had in their early childhood. Those who’ve had positive experiences, develop an empowering self-image, whereas those who’ve d inhibiting experiences often develop an inhibiting self-image.

A direct result of an empowering self-image is that such people can take on new challenges, try new things, make mistakes, yet move forward. In other words, they develop the skills and attitude to innovate much earlier on in their life. On the other hand, those with an inhibiting self-image never develop the courage nor the inclination to do anything different.

Story of an Ideal Childhood

Can Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ spectacular business and philanthropic success be attributed to his ideal childhood?

The ideal parents

Bill Gates was born in 1955 to William H Gates Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. Bill’s father attended the University of Washington, where he earned a BA in 1949 and a law degree in 1950.

Gates Sr. co-founded the law firm, Shidler & King, in 1964, which eventually became Preston, Gates & Ellis LLP. He continued to practice law until he retired from the law firm in 1998. Gates Sr. also served on the board of Planned Parenthood.

Bill’s mother, Mary Maxwell, was born to James Willard Maxwell, a banker, and Adele Thompson. Her grandfather was the president of National City Bank in Seattle and Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She also attended the University of Washington, where she met Gates Sr., whom she eventually married.

Mary Maxwell briefly taught school, but after Gates Sr. co-founded his law practice, she turned her attention to civic activities. She served on the boards of the Children’s Hospital Foundation, Seattle Symphony, Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, United Way of King County, and many other nonprofit organizations.

She also served as President of the Junior League of Seattle from 1966 to 1967. In 1980, she was appointed to the board of directors for the United Way, becoming the first woman leader of that organization.

Mary Maxwell Gates distinguished herself in so many ways that even a long list of her accomplishments can’t adequately sum up her importance as a community leader. At the same time, she was a devoted mother who raised a family during her many civic activities.

The ideal environment

Beyond the benefit of having an illustrious lineage, let’s examine a few key environmental parameters in which Bill Gates grew up.

1. Every summer, the Gates family, along with ten other families, spent two weeks at the Hood Canal. This was their annual tradition. One visitor to the Gates’ family outings remarked, “The family encouraged competition. It didn’t matter whether it was hearts or pickleball or swimming to the dock, there was always a reward for winning, and there was always a penalty for losing”.
2. Bill Gates’ parents encouraged their children to read. From an early age, Bill Gates enjoyed reading non-fiction, especially science and technology books. He learned so much that his parents had to institute a rule of “no reading allowed at the dinner table.”
3. Conversations at dinner were mostly about his parents’ day at work. Whether it was Gates Sr. talking about Intellectual Property Issues, planned parenthood or Mrs. Gates discussing aspects of successfully running her many civic programs. The Gates parents treated their children as intellectual and emotional equals and encouraged dialogue.
4. Bill Gates’ two favorite games were Risk and Monopoly, two popular games that hone business skills.

I think we can conclude with reasonable confidence that this confluence of the ideal parents and the perfect environment resulted in Bill Gates developing strong self-confidence, self–direction, intellectual curiosity, and a good grasp of business and social concepts at an early age.

Let’s take a look at how these experiences and choices made shaped his future.

Gary Kildall wrote the first version of the computer operating system. When IBM was looking for an operating system, Bill Gates recommended Gary to IBM. Unfortunately, IBM and Gary Kildall couldn’t reach an agreement. Sensing an opportunity, Bill bought QS-DOS software for $50,000, adapted it to create MS-DOS, and eventually licensed to IBM.

Although Gary Kildall was a very creative and talented, he turned out to be a poor businessman. On the other hand, Bill’s decision not to transfer the copyright of MS-DOS to IBM catapulted Microsoft to market dominance in the sector of the operating system. Could this maturity in business decisions be an outcome of his early exposure to all of those business and law discussions at the dinner table?

In 2001, the United States filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation. The plaintiffs alleged that Microsoft had abused monopoly power on Intel-based personal computers in its handling of operating system and web browser integration. The issue central to the case was whether Microsoft was allowed to bundle its flagship Internet Explorer (IE) web browser software with its Windows operating system.

Bundling them is alleged to have been responsible for Microsoft’s victory in the browser wars as every Windows user had a copy of IE. It restricted the market for competing web browsers Netscape Navigator.

Microsoft stated that the merging of Windows and IE was the result of innovation and competition, that the two were now the same product and inextricably linked, and that consumers were receiving the benefits of IE free.

Opponents countered that IE was still a separate product which did not need to be tied to Windows, since a different version of IE was available for Mac OS. They also asserted that IE was not free because its development and marketing costs may have inflated the price of Windows. Did the early influence of games such as Risk and Monopoly make Bill Gates strive to achieve dominance in the operating system software market? Did it encourage him to adopt strategies to create a monopoly?

On June 10, 1994, Bill’s mother passed away. That devastated Bill. His mother was a massive influence on him, and he felt a strong sense of purpose to continue her charitable activities. The same year he instituted the William H Gates Foundation and asked his father to lead the philanthropic activities.

Over the next few years, he and Melinda began to take an active interest in these activities and in 2000 formed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Eventually in 2006, Bill stepped aside from his daily role at Microsoft and went full-time with BMGF.

Today, BMGF is successfully tackling and eradicating a plethora of life-threatening issues such as Infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, reproductive health issues, family planning, so on and so forth. Could Bill’s early exposure to stories of leading and managing public programs prepare him to create the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the most successful philanthropic organizations in the world?

Let’s imagine a fictional opposite environment.

1. What if we replaced the mature dinner table conversations with constant talk about money running out before the end of the month?
2. What if he hadn’t been encouraged to read?
3. What if, during their summer outings, mere participation was considered an achievement rather than winning?
4. What if, instead of playing Risk and Monopoly, he’d played Chutes and Ladders?

Would this kind of environment have created a different Bill Gates?