key takeaways from the documentary about Bill Gates

I was interested in Bill Gates' work for quite some time now as the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded early on and when Wellcome Trust and Bill Gates, together with Mastercard, were working together to find a solution for this medical challenge. Wellcome Trust, as you all might know, is one of the wealthiest foundations which funded the large biology projects e.g. Human Genome Projects, and reformed the research funding scene by focusing on 'the best people' rather than the projects. I have always been fascinated by Wellcome Trust's work in biomedical sciences and was lucky enough to secure a Wellcome Trust studentship for my incoming PhD. But Bill Gates is more interesting from this perspective because unlike Sir Henry Wellcome, he does not have a background in biology or have a pharmaceutical business. 

What strikes me as very interesting about Bill Gates is his philanthropic work in R&D and solving the world's most challenging issues, with most of them required a lot of funding and high failure rates. 

The Netflix documentary Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates was a succinct epitome of the American business magnate, laying his early lives, successes with Microsoft, and his philanthropy work at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Here are some key points from the documentary - which may perhaps shed some lights on Bill Gates' success:

1. Bill grew up an optimistic kid - when he looked for ideas, instead of thinking why things are hard or unachievable, he asks 'what can be done to achieve this?' or 'how can we do this?'
   
2. Bill reads a lot of books - multiple books on a topic.
   He reads a lot on global health, energy, and education.
   He takes 'reading week' regularly just to read.
   In fact, he has a website where he writes reviews for his favourite books every season.
   
3. He has an amazing ability to retain information and to synthesise new things based on available information.
   
4. He is always on time, and he is running out of time (to solve the world's problems)
   
5. He is a workaholic and has very good technical skills (since middle school)
   
6. He has an upper-class family background, with very sociable parents, but himself is quite introverted. He still looks up to his mum even now - knowing several things that his mum would say that he can do better.
   
7. He actively looks for problems to solve. He also looks for people who can solve those problems. The film is almost very encouraging - hinting that if you're the one who can solve the problem, get in touch.
   
8. He was seemingly arrogant when young. Less so now.

On self-improvement

A common side effect of focusing on self-improvement is that you are not dependent on others to validate your self-worth.

Knowing your shortcomings and laying out plans to overcome them also meant that you are too busy for self-doubt and hesitation.

When you're finally free to look around, you will realise that these gradual improvements have brought you to a new height relative to your starting ground. Self-improvement is addictive - because the process blocks out noise and provides focus; the end results are tangible and real that one day you will find yourself decent and even attractive.

But the first step is the hardest - but small success begets more success.
I want to make my community a supportive and successful one, with each and everyone living their best, satisfying lives.

How do I convince everyone to take their first stride?
I wish to help and I wish to see you succeed <3 p="">

It has come to my attention that when achievements are being discussed, what's often brought to the table is whether the said person is 'born with a rich dad'.

I'd love to think my family is well off enough to allow me to see the world, but not so wealthy compared to many people.

The truth is that there will always be many people wealthier than you are, at whatever stage of your life. It's a fact to be accepted, and perhaps a reason to work harder.

However, what's less nice is when some attempted to discount one's hard work, talents, and achievements by judging how wealthy one's family is. I'm not saying it is not a sound argument. But it sounds like self-pity - that I have come to realise it's unattractive in the pursuit of a career.

'Do you think I have it easy?' was the single most useful advice that I received from a colleague. Indeed, nothing (reasonably ambitious) is easy. Having a preexisting network could help; having the money could give you an extra push. 

But without you as a driver - nothing could come to fruition. What drives me the most is when I see a privileged person works even harder than someone who has nothing and at the same time fully utilises the resources that are available - this, this drives me into working harder, not discounting the efforts that one had put in. This is the lesson I learnt.